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OBSERVATIONS 

WHITE MUSTARD SEED, 

In Affections cf tie 

LIVER, INTERNAL ORGANS, 

AND 
AND ON 

THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND LIFE. 



BY 

CHARLES TURNER COOKE, 

Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. 



" Whatever hope the dreams of speculation may suggest, of observing the proportion 
between nutriment and labour, and keeping the body in a healthy state by supplies 
exactly suited to its waste, we know that, in effect, the vital powers, unexcitedby 
action, grow gradually languid ; that as their vigour fails, obstructions are gene- 
rated, and from obstructions proceed most of those pains which wear us away 
slowly by periodical tortures, and which, although they sometimes suffer life to be 
long, condemn it to be u>eless, chain us down to the couch of misery^ and mock u§ 
with the hopes of death."— Johmon. 



FIFTH EDITION. 



C LONDON : 
W, SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL, 

Stationers' Hall Court. 



MDCCCXXVIU. 

V 



Ml 



[Entered at Stationers' Hall.] 



Printed by Hough and Pace, Gloucester. 



JOHN TURNOR, Esq. 

OF 

STOKE ROCHFORD, NEAR GRANTHAM. 

My dear Sir, 

As it teas from you that I first 
derived any clear practical idea of the Uses and 
Value of White Mustard Seed in the multifarious 
cases in which I have found it to be useful, espe- 
cially in that under which I have myself so long 
laboured, I feel that it is but an act of common 
justice, as ivellas of common gratitude, that I should 
dedicate to you the Observations which / have been 
led to make upon it. 



IV 

That you may long enjoy that health y&u owe, 
vnder God's blessing, to the adoption of the same 
means which it is our common object to recommend 
to others; and that you may enjoy more and more of 
that happiness which is the reward of disinterested 
benevolence, is the sincere desire of, 

My dear Sir, 

Your very faithful servant, 

CHARLES TURNER COOKE. 



Cheltenham, January^ 1826. 



PREFACE 



THE FIFTH EDITION. 



Four Editions of these Observations having 
issued from the press, in the course of little more 
than twelve months, and the last edition of them 
having been translated into the French, the Ita- 
lian, and I expect by this time, into other foreign 
languages, I need not trouble the reader with a 
long preface. 

v As I still feel it to be unnecessary, either to 
add much to, or to detract any thing from, what I 
have again and again stated, in the former editions, 
the present edition will not be found to vary much 
from the fourth, excepting that it contains the impor- 



VI 

tant illustration which I am enabled, so timely, to 
give, of the value of the simple remedy which I ad- 
vocate, in the no uncommon and oftentimes distress- 
ing infirmities of Infancy. Many more cases, of 
varying kinds, which have passed under my own 
observation, since the publication of the two last 
editions, and have strongly confirmed the principles 
which it has been my object to enforce, might be 
added, if I did not conceive those already before 
the public amply sufficient, and were not unwilling 
either to swell my little volume, or to run the 
risque of hurting the feelings of individuals. 

For the misunderstanding of the proposed re- 
medy displayed by some, for the perverted view 
of it taken by others, or for the ignorant use and 
abuse of it by a still larger class, I cannot consi- 
der myself accountable. It is enough for me to 
be enabled to restate my conviction, that for all 
the purposes for which I have recommended it, 
" nothing but ivant of management in the mode of 



VI 1 

administering it — want of perseverance in its use — 
and want of care in its selection, will interrupt its 
advancement ;" and honestly to declare, as the 
result of the experience which I have since had 
of its value, both as a preventive and remedial 
medicine, that thoroughly understood, and fairly 
acted upon, it will leave as little ground for cavil 
at its supposed pretensions to universal applica- 
bility, as for any other charges which have been 
brought against it. 

I must again repeat, that the general principle 
upon which my recommendations are founded — 
yet more, that almost the very language in which 
it is advocated is just that which is so accurately 
set forth, and made use of, in a more detailed 
work on a similar subject — a work which does 
equal honour to the head, and to the heart, of 
its author — I mean a Treatise on Derangements 
of the Liver, Internal Organs, and Nervous Sys- 
tem, by Dr. James Johnson ; nor can I men- 



Vlll 

tion his name without again publicly expressing 
my gratitude to him for the satisfaction which I 
have derived from adopting in my practice the 
views which he has so ably elucidated. 



Colombia Place, Cheltenham, 
August, 1328, 



X>EFORE I make a single observation of my 
own on the efficacy of a remedy of which few 
have not heard, if they have not had experience 
of its worth, I must do honour to the benevolent 
promulgator of it, by transcribing for more sober 
perusal than it has as yet, perhaps, generally met 
with, the very ingenuous and unsophisticated re- 
lation which he himself gives of the history and 
progress of his own acquaintance with its powers. 
This has hitherto been given to the public either 
in the form of newspaper intelligence, or printed 
on a single sheet* for more extended circulation 
among the poor ; and I fear has, on this account, 
not obtained that credit and attention which it so 
well deserves. I now give it verbatim, that it 
may be received and acknowledged as worthy of 
better acceptation than that of a mere charlatanical 
expression of imaginative opinion, or enthusiastic 
attestation of visionary success. I may just add, 

* The first impression of the Tract here alluded to was 
printed in the month of March, 1824, and was introduced into 
the supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine of that yeai\ 



10 



for the information of those to whom he is not 
known, that the writer of it could, in the very 
nature of things, have had no other object in 
view, in thus making his discovery and its con- 
sequences known, beside an earnest and sincere 
desire to make others participators in its benefits. 
He is as much above every possible temptation 
to empiricism, or to disingenuity of procedure, as 
all who excuse, or encourage either, must, in the 
same nature of things, be below his friendship. 



OBSERVATIONS 

OF 

WHITE MUSTARD SEED, 

TAKEN WHOLE, 



In the month of June, 1822, I made trial of 
the White Mustard Seed merely as an aperient; 
when the generally improved state of my feelings, 
which soon followed, inclining me to give it credit 
for other medicinal properties of at least equal 
value, I gave it to some of the sick poor in the 
neighbourhood, and with a success which excited 
my astonishment. From that time to the present, 
I have been in the habit of recommending it very 
generally ; and the opinion which I have always 
entertained is now fully confirmed — that the public 
is not aware of its very extraordinary powers, 
nor of the very great varietur of cases to which it 
is applicable ; and that in order to its adoption as 
a remedy for disease, its virtues require only to 
be known. 



12 



The White Mustard Seed is an almost certain 
remedy for all diseases connected with disordered 
functions of the stomach, liver, and bowels, and 
as such has been eminently successful in the fol- 
lowing (among other) cases, viz. — in tendency of 
blood to the head, headache, weakness of the eyes 
and voice, and hoarseness ; in asthma, shortness 
of breath, wheezing, cough, and other distressing 
affections of the chest; in indigestion, oppression 
after eating, heartburn, sickness, wind and spasms, 
cramp and other uneasy affections of the sto- 
mach; in debility, uneasiness, pain and sense 
of tenderness and soreness in the interior, and 
particularly at the pit of the stomach, and in 
pain in the sides and lower part of the body; in 
scanty and redundant flow of bile, in obstruc- 
tions that may lead to scirrhous liver, torpor, and 
other morbid affections of that organ ; in deficient 
perspiration, gravel, scanty and unhealthy state 
of the urine, and other disorders of the skin and 
kidneys; in relaxed and irritable bowels, flatu- 
lence, and occasional and habitual costiveness; 
in severe colds, rheumatism, lumbago, spasms 
and cramp in the body and limbs, partial and 
general dropsy, palsy, coldness and numbness of 
the limbs and feet, loss of appetite, failure of 



13 



sleep, weakness of nerves, depression of spirits, 
and general debility of the system. In ague, 
gout, rheumatic fever, epilepsy, scrofula, scurvy, 
erysipelas, or St. Anthony's fire, in the dreadfully 
painful affection called tic douloureux, and in 
recovery from the small-pox, typhus and scarlet 
fevers, and other severe disorders connected with 
a depraved state of the interior — it has been taken 
with very considerable advantage. For the long 
round worms and the small white ones also, it is 
incomparably the best remedy hitherto discovered ; 
inasmuch as both in children and grown-up per- 
sons, it not only destroys those reptiles, but if 
persevered in long enough to restore the tone of 
the stomach and bowels, will prevent their recur- 
rence in future. The following case furnishes a 
striking proof of the extraordinary remedial power 
of the Mustard Seed. A very respectable sur- 
geon and apothecary, whom I have long known, 
a person of regular and rather abstemious habits, 
who, during a period of thirty years, had sus- 
tained the fatigue of an extensive country prac- 
tice with scarcely a day's illness, at the age of 
fifty-two was suddenly attacked with a severe 
pain in the left side and lower part of the body. 
Supposing the pain to arise from constipated bow- 



14 



els, he had recourse to calomel, rhubarb, castor 
oil, and several other active aperients, but without 
obtaining relief. He then took an emetic, was 
bled largely in the arm, used a hot bath, was 
blistered in the part affected, and lay for seventy 
hours in a most profuse perspiration. By this 
treatment the pain gradually abated, leaving him, 
however, at the end of four days extremely weak 
and emaciated. For the space of two years after, 
he had frequent and severe returns of the pain ; 
and his constitution being undermined, the sto- 
mach, liver, and kidneys, became sensibly affect- 
ed, and indigestion, constipation, and flatulence 
succeeded, with the appearances of general decay. 
Having consulted several professional men, and 
taken a great variety of medicines during this 
period, but to no good purpose, in November, 
1822, he made trial of the Mustard Seed. It is 
remarkable, that in very few days after taking 
the Seed the pain entirely ceased, and has never 
since returned. The action of the affected organs 
was gradually improved, digestion was restored, 
the bowels resumed their functions, and at differ- 
ent times he was relieved by the discharge of 
several small portions of gravel. Encouraged by 
these advantages, he continued the use of the 



15 



Seed with increased confidence. In November, 
1823, he discharged with ease a large rugged ob- 
long portion of gravel; and to use his own expres- 
sion, his health had then and for some time before 
attained a state of wonderful improvement. 

The Mustard Seed is as valuable for the pre- 
vention as for the cure of disease. Of its power 
as a preventive, the following case is a remark- 
able illustration. A friend of mine had, for five 
or six years previous to the year 1823, been re- 
gularly attacked with hay or summer asthma, in 
the months of June or July, in each of those 
years. The attacks were always violent, and for 
the most part accompanied with some danger. 
And such was the impression made on his consti- 
tution by the disease, and the remedies resorted 
to, (of which bleeding and blistering were the 
chief,) that each illness led to a long confinement 
to the house, extending to a period of nearly 
three months. In the early part of that year he 
resolved to make trial of the Seed, in order to 
prevent, if possible, a recurrence of the asthma; 
and in the month of March he began the use of 
it, and has thenceforward taken it regularly once 
every day (a dessert-spoonful about an hour after 
dinner) to the present time. During this long 



16 



period he has not only wholly escaped the disease, 
but his health has never been interrupted by ill- 
ness of any kind, and has been progressively 
improving ; and he is now enjoying a greater 
degree of strength aud activity, and much better 
spirits, than he recolleets to have had before. 
The most formidable bodily evils to which we are 
exposed are well known to originate in colds, to 
which, from the extreme variableness of our cli- 
mate, we are peculiarly liable. As a means of 
preventing this fruitful source of disease, the 
Mustard Seed has, in many instances, been re- 
markably successful. Ever since June, 1822, to 
the present time, (a period exceeding three years) 
I have regularly taken it once every day; and 
during all this time I have never been troubled 
with the slightest cold, and have enjoyed an un- 
interrupted flow of health. A near relation of 
mine too, whose life for many years had been 
frequently exposed to imminent danger from in- 
flammatory affections of the chest, brought on by 
cold, of which he was remarkably susceptible, 
has happily experienced a similar advantage from 
it. If persons of consumptive and delicate habits, 
or otherwise constitutionally susceptible of cold, 
would avail themselves of this hint ; and if all 



17 



persons indiscriminately on the first attack of dis- 
ease, unaccompanied by any decidedly inflamma- 
tory symptoms, would have recourse to the Mus- 
tard Seed for a few weeks, the extent, to which 
human suffering might be thus prevented, would, 
it may reasonably be presumed, exceed all cal- 
culation. 

After what has been said, it is almost super- 
fluous to observe that the Mustard Seed is pecu- 
liarly adapted to the case of those, whose habits, 
situations, and conditions in life render them more 
particularly liable to disordered functions of the 
stomach, liver, and bowels, with the endless va- 
riety of distressing maladies flowing from that 
cause. Of this class are principally the studious 
and sedentary, persons whose -constitutions have 
suffered from long residence in hot climates, ma- 
riners and sailors while at sea, manufacturers and 
mechanics of every description, miners and such 
as work under ground, the indolent and intempe- 
perate, the poor who suffer from hard labour and 
scanty means of support, and persons advanced 
in years. To children also of the age of twelve 
months and upwards, the Mustard Seed is highly 
beneficial as a remedy for worms, and as a means 
of obviating the extreme debility of the stomach 



18 



and bowels, so frequently attaching to their ten- 
der years. When taken by them, it occasionally 
throws out a considerable eruption on the skin, a 
result which has never failed to promote their 
general health. It is likewise particularly appli- 
cable to the disorders peculiar to the female sex, 
and is of great service after confinement, and 
especially after severe lyings-in ; and where the 
mother is a nurse, it is also through her of singular 
benefit to the child, effectually correcting all irre- 
gularities of the stomach and bowels, and thus 
causing it to thrive in a wonderful manner. 

In the Mustard Seed are combined a valuable 
aperient and an equally valuable tonic ; and thus 
while it affords the most salutary and comfortable 
relief to the bowels, it never weakens, but on the 
contrary always strengthens, in a very remarkable 
degree, both those organs and the stomach, and 
ultimately the whole system. Its efficacy, pro- 
bably, consists in a communication of energy 
and activity to those movements of the canal by 
which the aliment is propelled, and in this way, 
perhaps, it operates in animating and improving 
those secretions of the stomach, pancreas, and 
liver, by which digestion and chylification (those 
most important functions in the animal economy) 



19 



are effected. In other words, the efficacy of the 
Seed in the removal and prevention of diseases, 
does not arise from any specific power over each 
particular disease, but from the vigour and health 
which it imparts to the general system through 
the medium of a greatly improved state of the 
stomach, liver, and bowels, and by which the 
constitution is enabled to throw off and prevent 
the several diseases before detailed. This view of 
the subject, coupled with the well-known fact, 
that the great majority of disorders originate in 
a depraved state of those organs, satisfactorily 
accounts for the extraordinary success of the me- 
dicine in diseases so very various and opposite. 

The Seed passes through the body whole, and 
very little if at all enlarged ; and thus while it 
imparts its medicinal virtues to the system gene- 
rally, by means of the mucilage constantly flow- 
ing from it in its passage through the alimentary 
canal, it probably at the same time, by its stimu- 
lating properties, assists in propelling the contents 
of the bowels. It has frequently succeeded when 
all other medicines have failed ; it never loses its 
effect by use ; it requires neither confinement to 
the house, nor any particular attention to diet ; 
and in the absence of decidedly inflammatory 
symptoms is always safe. 



20 



DIRECTIONS TO BE CAREFULLY OBSERVED. 

The Mustard Seed is always to be swallowed 
whole, (not broken or masticated,) and either 
alone, or hi a little water or other liquid, warm 
or cold ; but for children, or persons who find 
difficulty in swallowing it, the following mode is 
recommended : each dose, as it is wanted for use, 
should be washed in boiling water for one or two 
minutes, after which it may be taken in a little 
gruel, barley*water, or other smooth liquid, and 
(if necessary) a small quantity of sugar may be 
added to render it more agreeable to the palate. 

Generally speaking, three doses should be taken 
every day without intermission ; the first about an 
hour before breakfast, the second about an hour 
after dinner, and the third either at bed time, or 
an hour before. Those who dine at so late an 
hour as six or seven o'clock, should take the 
second dose at two or three o'clock in the after- 
noon, and the third about an hour after dinner. 
When taken after dinner, the Seed will, in some 
instances, excite a sense of fulness and distension 
in the stomach ; and where the inconvenience is 
considerable, the second dose should be taken 
about an hour before that meal. 



21 



The quantity in each dose must always be re- 
gulated by the effect on the bowels, which are 
not to be purged, but in every instance must be 
uniformly maintained in a perfectly free and open 
state. Each dose, therefore, should contain such 
a quantity, that the whole taken in one day shall 
be sufficient to produce a complete and healthy 
evacuation of the bowels every day ; an effect to 
which the patient should always pay particular 
attention, and in securing which the whole art in 
the use of the medicine consists. The quantity, 
therefore, in each dose, .is, in all cases, to be 
ascertained by trial, and must be determined by 
the observation and judgment of the patient. Ge- 
nerally speaking, two or three large tea-spoonfuls 
in each dose will produce the desired effect, and 
with some constitutions much smaller doses will 
answer the purpose : but should that quantity fail, 
each dose may be increased to a table-spoonful ; 
and in some instances a fourth table-spoonful may 
safely be added between breakfast and dinner. 

When this increased quantity fails to produce 
the desired effect on the bowels, (a circumstance, 
however, which very rarely occurs,) it will be 
proper to assist the operation of the Seed with a 
little Epsom Salts, or other mild aperient, taken 



22 



every morning, or every second or third morning', 
as occasion may require, instead of the first dose 
of the Seed, for the space of ten days or a fort- 
night, or such longer period as may be found 
necessary. And if the patient be troubled with 
piles, it will be adviseable to relieve the bowels 
occasionally with a small tea-spoonful of milk 
of sulphur, and an equal quantity of magnesia, 
mixed together in a little milk or water, taken at 
bed time, either with, or after the last dose of the 
Seed. The following case will serve to shew the 
great benefit which, under some circumstances, 
may be derived from the judicious use of an ape- 
rient medicine. A friend of mine, whose bowels 
were remarkably sluggish, and who was other- 
wise much afflicted with disease, took three and 
sometimes four table-spoonfuls of the Seed every 
day, without experiencing any sensible effect on 
the bowels. After persevering in this plan for 
several successive days, with considerable incon- 
venience to himself, he altered his plan, and took 
a small dose of Epsom Salts before breakfast, a 
dessert-spoonful of the Mustard Seed about an 
hour after dinner, and a similar dose of it at bed 
time, every day for about ten days ; when he 
found that three moderate doses of the Seed every 



23 



day (each dose consisting only of a small dessert- 
spoonful) became amply sufficient to produce the 
desired effect on the bowels, without any further 
recourse to Epsom Salts. It may be proper to 
add, that a few roasted apples or baked pears 
taken at night, about a quarter of an hour before 
the last dose of the Seed, will, in some cases, 
supply the place of an aperient medicine. 

In palsy, asthma, ague, disorder of the liver, 
rheumatism and worms, the Seed should be taken 
somewhat more freely than in other cases, and in 
instances of long standing and great obstinacy, 
to the extent of four or five large table-spoonfuls 
in the course of each day, if the bowels will bear 
that quantity without much inconvenience ; and 
in these as in other cases, the patient must have 
recourse to Epsom Salts or other mild aperient, 
or to the mixture of sulphur and magnesia, if 
necessary. In asthma, the patient should always 
take the first dose of the Seed before he leaves 
his bed room. 

When the Seed is taken as a preventive by 
persons of consumptive and delicate habits, or 
otherwise constitutionally susceptible of cold, or 
by others for the purpose of preventing the recur- 
rence of disease of any kind, or as a remedy for 



24 



costiveness or any slight attack or disease, a 
single dose taken every day about an hour before 
breakfast, (or which is generally to be preferred) 
about an hour after dinner, will very frequently 
accomplish the proposed object, provided it be 
sufficient in quantity to keep the bowels in an uni- 
formly open and comfortable state. 

I will only add, that a steady daily persever- 
ance in the use of the Mustard Seed, according 
to the directions above recommended, for the space 
of two, three, four, or six months, and in many 
instances for a much shorter period, will seldom 
fail to convince the patient of its extraordinary 
efficacy and singular value, either by effecting a 
complete cure, or at least by affording very solid 
and substantial relief. The remedy is, indeed, so 
perfectly safe, and the advantage derived from it 
is generally so certain and so very considerable, 
that should a trial of one or two months fail to 
produce any sensible benefit, he has neverthe- 
less ample encouragement to persevere. And he 
is not to be dismayed by occasional returns of the 
disorder (which are to be expected, when it is 
obstinate or of long standing) ; since each suc- 
ceeding attack will be less severe than the former, 
and the intervals between them will be successively 



25 



enlarged, until, by degrees, the disorder will, in 
all probability, be finally subdued, and health 
ultimately restored. 



I. T. 



Lincolnshire, October, 1825.* 



* Since the first edition of these Observations, several edi- 
tions of this tract have been printed, with slight verbal altera- 
tions, and one (that which I have given in the Appendix) in an 
entirely new form, and not less than a hundred thousand copies, 
in various languages, have been circulated ; but as no material 
alteration has been made in the substance of it, and as I wish to 
preserve' the simple history of my acquaintance with, and parti- 
cipation in the advocacy of, so popular a remedy, as well as the 
no less simple relation of its more strenuous advocate, in pre- 
cisely the same form as that in which I originally laid it before 
the profession and the public, I have again reprinted it as it 
stood in the first edition, and in those which have succeeded it. 



26 



THE foregoing simple narration of the origin 
and progress of that celebrity which the White 
Mustard Seed has so almost exclusively obtained 
for itself, and the no less artless enumeration of 
the various disorders, in which it has been found 
useful, leave me little to do in order to its being 
yet more extensively adopted. I have rather, 
therefore, to bear testimony to the truth of this 
statement, and to account for the seeming absurd- 
ity of such a classification of disordered states. 

This I am enabled, from much personal inter- 
course with the writer of it, at once to undertake, 
and to substantiate. There will, indeed, be little 
difficulty in reconciling a discrepancy of state- 
ment, even thus apparently great, save in the view 
of those who are ignorant of the vital importance 
of the state of the digestive organs and functions, 
either as regards the production, or the removal of 
disease ; who know not that the stomach is, in the 
physical system, exactly what the heart is in the 
spiritual — the source from which every thing that 
is good, or evil, proceeds. 

It is by means of the internal surface of the 
alimentary canal, that the human fabric is first 



27 



built up,* and afterwards sustained. On the 
healthy actions of this extended surface, the 
healthy actions of all other parts of the body 
mainly depend. The abdominal organs concern- 
ed in the process of digestion and chylification 
are all linked in the strictest bonds of sympathy. 
The stomach, liver, intestinal canal, and pancreas, 
are so associated in office, that no one can be de- 
ranged in function without drawing in the others 
to a participation. This is now universally ad- 

* Hence the magnitude of the importance of the food and 
regimen of children, particularly of those who manifest a pre- 
disposition to debility and disease. Food which is not digested 
does not afford nourishment, and it is only that which nourishes, 
that gives any durable vigour or support ; and it is no less true, 
that the digestive organs are liable to injury at a much earlier 
period than parents usually imagine, or they would more com- 
monly abstain from giving children such substances as their 
stomachs are utterly incapable of digesting, and thus subjecting 
them to the necessity of taking medicine. From this cause it 
is that the complaints of so many children arise, and that the 
lives of so many more may be said to consist in a perpetual 
struggle between remedy and disease, the one often proving as 
destructive to sound health as the other. 

To the formation of a vigorous frame, a certain quantity of 
support is necessary, and if this is not supplied, its powers 
sooner or later fail. It signifies nothing to the general economy, 
whether the fault is in the stomach, or in the intestines, or any 
where else. 



28 



mitted. The tissue, or membrane, which lines 
the digestive organs from the mouth to the rectum, 
is a secreting surface, which is constantly pouring 
forth a fluid that is necessary for the digestion of 
the food in every stage of its progress. And it is 
a well-known fact, that, where any gland or se- 
creting surface is over excited, the fluid secreted 
becomes unnatural in quantity or quality. It is 
sometimes diminished, sometimes increased, but 
always depraved. This is familiarly exemplified, 
when the mucous membrane of the nose and 
bronchi happens to be acted upon by sudden at- 
mospherical transitions, as in a common cold. 
At first, the membrane is dry and half inflamed; 
afterwards, a more copious secretion than usual 
comes pouring forth, and of so acrid a quality as 
to excoriate the nose and lips themselves. It is 
just so with the mucous membrane lining the sto- 
mach and bowels. When inordinately or impro- 
perly excited by the quantity or quality of the 
food and drink, the secretions are irregular and 
morbid ; and therefore a constant source of irrita- 
tion is generated in this important class of organs. 
This irritation is propagated by sympathy (for we 
have no better term to express the fact) to almost 
every part of the human system, and the discerning 



29 



practitioner can clearly detect the impaired func- 
tions of the abdominal viscera in the state of the 
mind, the nerves, the muscles, the excretions, the 
skin, and even the joints and bones. The great, 
but neglected truth, cannot be too frequently 
brought forward, that, ivhen any one part of the 
system is inordinately excited, some other part or 
parts are deprived of their due share of vital energy, 
as we every day see exemplified in what is termed, 
derivation by blisters, &c. Now, when so large 
a share of irritation, and consequently of excite- 
ment, is kept constantly concentrated round the 
digestive apparatus, it is easy to see how the ani- 
mal and intellectual systems must severely feel the 
loss. The deranged state of the nerves, the irrita- 
bility of the temper, and the want of tone in the 
viuscles, which are so conspicuous in stomach and 
liver complaints, afford the most convincing evi- 
dence of the truth of these positions. 

When we consider the various ways in which 
the functions of the liver and digestive organs 
may become disturbed, both by the direct appli- 
cation of irritating substances to the viscera them- 
selves, and by their associations with the surface 
of the body, the brain and nervous system, &c. 
we need not wonder at the extent to which this 



30 



class of maladies has arrived in modern times, 
and especially in the upper walks of civilized 
life. 

The chain of sympathies between the skin and 
the abdominal viscera is remarkable. In this cli- 
mate, therefore, where all possible changes of 
atmosphere are more extensive and sudden, than 
in any other part of the globe, the frequent dis- 
turbances in the vascular and nervous system of 
the skin, from atmospherical mutations, are per- 
petually disturbing the balance of the circulation 
and excitement in the interior organs. 

In enumerating the causes then of these dis- 
orders, I would first specify the effects of atmos- 
pherical vicissitude, since, upon the whole, this 
is the most operative cause of functional derange- 
ment of the viscera in this country. This parti- 
cularly affects the lower classes of society, where 
want of bedding and clothing exposes them to the 
influence of cold and dampness. It has been 
supposed, even by those who ought to reason 
better, that people can hardly be too lightly co- 
vered at night. But is there not much greater 
danger from the effects of cold, when the body 
is scantily covered, than from any consequence 
likely to arise from a superabundance of clothing? 



31 



In the one case the sleep is frequently broken by 
the disagreeable sensations of cold, and the re- 
freshment, on getting up in the morning, is very 
incomplete ; in the other, even if there should be 
a considerable increase of perspiration, the sleep 
is followed by vigour and refreshment. 

The Russians, who are every night bathed in 
perspiration, in consequence of sleeping over their 
ovens, resist the severity of their climate, and 
are more exempt from pulmonary complaints than 
almost any other nation. A large class of arti- 
sans and mechanics, in this country, suffer from 
biliary and dyspeptic derangements, by the appli- 
cation of cold and dampness to the feet, while 
they are employed in sedentary avocations, and 
consequently, when the circulation is languid on 
the exposed surface of the extremities. 

But we have not only the want of uniformity 
in our own climate to contend with. The great 
and necessary intercourse which the English have 
with their tropical colonies, occasions a great an- 
nual importation of diseases of the liver and other 
digestive organs, which must form a prominent 
item in the class under consideration. When it 
is recollected, also, that the offspring of indivi- 
duals affected with biliary and gastric complaints, 



32 



very generally inherit a strong predisposition, at 
least, to the same maladies, we may form some 
estimate of the rapid strides, which these diseases 
are now making among all ranks of society ! 
Thus, we see a variety of causes first engendering 
derangements of the digestive organs, and thence 
an organization transmitted from parents to child- 
ren, which is highly susceptible of these derange- 
ments, from even the slightest causes. 

The next cause in order of importance, is the 
habit of drinking spirituous and fermented liquors, 
which have a direct, and indeed a specific effect, 
in deranging the functions, and ultimately the 
structure of the stomach, liver, and intestines. 
To this we must add in general terms, every sort 
of intemperance in food. 

The manifestations of the mind correspond 
with the derangements of the corporeal organs 
and functions. Thus the drunkard is incapable 
of attention ; fails in his memory and judgment ; 
becomes irresolute, timid, nay, even cowardly. 
The morning hours hang heavy upon his hands, 
and he is miserable till he is again under the in- 
fluence of that stimulus which habit and disease 
have now rendered necessary to his comfort. 
Finally, he sinks into sottishness and stupidity, 



33 



and commonly dies paralytic, apoplectic, drop- 
sical, or maniacal. 

But as it is to the digestive organs that the 
inebriating materials are immediately applied, so 
they bear the onus of the morbid effects. The 
liver is injured, and its secretions are deteriorated 
in a remarkable manner. It is well known that, 
the livers of animals fed on the grains left after 
distillation and fermentation, are found indurated 
and enlarged. It is just so with hard drinkers. 
The constant irritation in the line of the digestive 
organs keeps up a determination of blood to these 
viscera, ending in congestion, chronic inflamma- 
tion, or obstruction. In this country, where such 
an enormous quantity of ale, wine and spirits is 
annually consumed, the mischief is proportion- 
able, and in this way, alone, the great prevalence 
of stomach and liver complaints might be nearly 
accounted for, but unfortunately there are many 
other sources of the same mischief. 

If among the labouring classes of society, in 
this country, we see many swallowing great quan- 
tities of fermented liquors, without any apparent 
ill effects, we are not thence to infer, that the 
artisan and mechanic, and much less the seden- 
tary, the inactive, and the dissolute classes, can 
c 



34 



pursue the same practice, with similar impunity. 
The marked and decisive effects of intoxicating' 
liquors on the liver, and its secretions, have been 
noticed in all ages, and are familiar even to vul- 
gar observation. 

It is observed by Dr. Baillie, in his work on 
Morbid Anatomy, that tuberculated states of the 
liver are most commonly found among people 
addicted to strong drink. Now, if hard drinking, 
and particularly dram-drinking, be capable of 
exciting this terrible and incurable disease, de- 
rangement of structure in the liver, it requires no 
great stretch of credulity to believe, that a less 
excessive use of spirits, wine and beer, such indeed 
as is daily practised, may be quite adequate 
(particularly in conjunction with other causes) to 
disturb the functions of the organ in question; 
and this truth is hourly forced on the notice of 
every medical man who has any pretensions to 
discrimination.* 

* The last and most difficult piece of knowledge attained 
by the Physician is — the power of Discrimination, and that 
almost instinctive sagacity which penetrates at a glance, the idi- 
osyncrasy of the patient before him, and perceives at once the 
plan of treatment that is most suited to his case. Indeed tact, 
as it has justly been denominated, in discriminating diseases in 
the living body, can only be attained by those who have ac- 



35 



It is not, however, so easy to explain the mode 
in which fermented liquors act on the hepatic 
system. To consider them simply as stimulants, 
will not avail us ; for we see the hottest spices of 
the East and West devoured in large quantities, 
without any such effect. As a deficiency and ir- 
regularity of the biliary secretion, almost invariably 
characterise the long-continued use and abuse of 
spirits, it is not unreasonable to infer that they 
act, at first, as specific stimuli on the liver and 
its ducts, as well as on the whole chiliferous ap- 
paratus, gradually wearing out their excitability, 
and leading to paucity of biliary secretion, and 
deficient action in the lacteals. 

With respect to food, it is a curious fact, that 
in most hepatic diseases, whether of function or 

quired an intimate knowledge of the natural structure of the 
human frame, and have had long and constant opportunities of 
visiting the sick. The possession or the absence of this faculty 
constitutes, in fact, the main difference between one medical 
practitioner and another. What Lord Bacon says of love, 
seems applicable to disease : " Love/ says he, ' is not ma- 
nifested by staring in the face, but is communicated by slight 
glances, and sudden quick sparkles of the eye." Habits of 
attentive observation, too, are also necessary to enable us to 
know, with any thing like certainty, either the effects, or the 
powers of medicines. 



36 



of structure, the appetite, though often irregular 
and capricious, is not often defective; a circum- 
stance which is by no means fortunate for the 
patient, because the digestion is never good. The 
consequence is, that although intemperance in 
food may not have given rise to the disease, it 
now contributes to aggravate it. That the habit, 
however, of indulging in the pleasures of the table 
is one of the contributing cavses of biliary de- 
rangements cannot be doubted, since not only 
gluttons of the human species, but other animals 
if over-fed, are very subject to enlargements of 
the liver; and as there is no people who fare more 
sumptuously than the English, and that, too, on 
the most substantial dishes, we are fairly autho- 
rized in setting down intemperance in food as one 
of the causes of hepatic derangements.* 

* There is, perhaps, but one way of correcting that weak- 
ness of character which leads a man to eat and drink what he 
knows will do him harm. The greater part of mankind seem not 
only to Jose the benefit of the experience of others, but of their 
own. They suffer their health to be undermined, and their ease 
to be perpetually broken in upon, for want of fixing their atten- 
tion stedfastly upon their feelings, and connecting the circum- 
stances upon which they depend, strongly together in the mind. 
Ideas stamped upon the memory with great distinctness, have 
undoubted power in deciding the will, and very frequently thej 



37 



Particular kinds of food, too, are more calcu- 
lated to derange the functions of the liver, through 
the medium of the stomach, than others — as fat, 
rancid, and oily meats, together with the long- 
catalogue of pastry, confectionary, and made- 
dishes. 

It is, however, principally by the quantity of 
our food that we injure the tone of the digestive 
organs. Those portions of our aliment, over 

prove capable of resisting the seductive tendency of impres- 
sions, made by present objects. To pass our table transactions 
in frequent review, as the golden verses ascribed to Pythagoras 
recommend with regard to our whole conduct; to dwell upon 
their consequences, particularly their disagreeable ones; to call 
up in lively colours before the imagination that delightfully free 
and unencumbered state of all the faculties which accompanies 
an easy digestion ; to compare what is lost and gained by throw- 
ing into the stomach such materials as tend to disorder and dis- 
tress it, is our best preservative against the danger of becoming 
Dyspeptic and Hypochondriac; and without this our physical 
expedients will hardly get fair play. To oppose reflection to 
sensation is indeed the only resource in this and many other 
cases of temptation, unless a higher influence befriend us, by 
bringing to our remembrance that whilst it is written, " every 
creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be 
received with thanksgiving :" it is also written, " whether 
therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
glory of God :" and that he cannot be said in any sense to obey 
this divine command who, by even comparative excess, renders 
himself less able to perform his duties to God and man. 



38 



which the stomach and duodenum cannot exercise 
the full power of digestion, pass slowly or rapidly 
along the intestinal canal, as foreign and irritating 
matter, keeping up a constant irritation there, and 
producing a host of morbid associations in va- 
rious other parts of the system*. 

* Diet, judiciously ordered, equally promotes bodily and 
moral health ; for good digestion favours refreshing sleep, and 
causes corporeal hilarity conducive to moral enjoyments ; while 
on the contrary, a disordered state of the stomach and its de- 
pendancies creates troubled dreams and irritations of temper. 
Nay more, I am disposed to believe that some kinds of Mania 
may be attributed to continued disturbances of the stomach and 
bowels (whether by improper food or medicines), which in 
time deprive the oppressed sufferer of the power to distinguish 
between his sleeping and waking dreams ; nor will it seem in- 
credible to others, if they for a moment recollect the extent of 
their internal surface ; of what that surface consists ; and how 
quickly each painful sensation is conveyed to the brain from the 
irritated extremities of its innumerable nerves. Attention to 
temperance, and to a select and easily digested diet, is more 
especially needful for persons addicted to severe study, and to 
those who are suffering from anxiety or distress. It may also 
be assumed as a general fact, that the hurtful influences of men- 
ial labour, or of moral suffering, prove more injurious to bodily 
health as life advances, and that such causes commonly produce 
their first bad effect upon the stomach and bowels. Can any 
other argument be thought necessary to evince the universal 
propriety of physiological information? "What is reasoning, 
bat to trace the order and relation of events? and how is, it pos- 



39 



A fourth cause of great influence in this coun- 
try, is the " Plav of the Passions." The people 
of England, from their geographical situation, 
mercantile habits, and political character, expe- 
rience a more energetic excitement of the mental 
functions and faculties, than any other people on 
the face of the globe. This is speaking collec- 
tively; but when we analyze the different classes 
of society more minutely, we shall find that the 
pursuits of a commercial and manufacturing life 
must involve their votaries, for obvious reasons, 
in a train of doubts, anxieties, and agitating pas- 
sions, which have a peculiar influence on the bi- 
liary and digestive organs in particular. The 
effects of strong and sudden emotions, as fear, 
surprize, grief, &c. on the stomach and liver are 
subjects of every day's observation ; and the 
same causes operating more slowly and impercep- 
tibly, at length effect the most serious derange- 
ments in these organs, and their functions. From 

sible for one to be rational with regard to himself, if he be not 
made sensible of the precise result of a given line of condaot? 
Without this, hew shall any one, in danger of doieg so, avoid 
throwing himself into situations of misery, as extreme as he 
beholds in the case of others, more advanced in the scale of 
such affections than himself. 



40 



the known sympathy between the sensorium and 
the viscera, we may reasonably infer that, when 
intellectual operations are carried on with immo- 
derate zeal; or the mind is kept in a harassed and 
anxious state, a portion of vital energy is, as it 
were, withdrawn from those organs with which 
the brain sympathizes, in consequence of which 
their functions become disturbed, or even sus- 
pended. A familiar example of this may be seen, 
in all its degrees, among the class of sedentary 
literati, whose biliary and digestive organs are 
torpid in proportion to the overstrained exertion 
of their mental faculties. Even of the tradesman 
and artisan, though they have somewhat more 
corporeal, and less mental exercise than the class 
alluded to, we may assert, that, their exercise 
being of a confined and partial nature, while their 
minds are very generally on the stretch, respecting 
their individual interests, and wavering prospects, 
they do, on the whole, participate more than 
might be expected, in the very same diseases to 
which their more learned brethren are subject.* 

* If this be the case with those whose corporeal and other 
powers of resistance have arrived at their fullest strength, how 
much more truly may it be affirmed of those who are yet in that 
progressive stage, which precedes the full developing of the 



41 



We come now to trace the consequences of 
those checks and interruptions of the biliary se- 
cretion. It is conjectured, for it cannot be accu- 

system. Of how much moment then is the physical, as well as 
the moral, education of children. We have only to observe 
the manner in which strong feelings act, to judge of the compa- 
rative inflaence of less powerful impressions. Correspondent to 
the degree in which sensations exert their inflaence, a reaction 
is produced, which we distinguish by the term, " emotion." 
The agitation produced by the first sensation is immediately 
communicated to the whole nervous system ; and according to 
the nature of the impression made upon the mind, a commensu- 
rate sympathy is felt in the animal economy. To reiterated or 
continued emotions, affections succeed, and (the term being 
applicable to unpleasant as well as pleasant states of the feel- 
ings) certain trains of agreeable emotions produce those affec- 
tions which increase the force of the vital energies, while 
emotions of a different nature tend to depress them. Convinced 
as we must be, how much our relish and enjoyment of life in ail 
its stages depend upon the state of the mind, we cannot for a 
moment doubt its influence at that early period, when the frame 
is most susceptible. Under circumstances of great anxiety, 
with what activity do the vital properties sympathize ! With 
what rapidity do they pass from the highest to the lowest degree 
of energy ! The whole habit feels disordered — the muscular 
fibres lose their tone, and the stomach becomes affected : such is 
the subserviency we involuntary pay to the nervous influence, 
which to the animal system is what the sun is to the flower. 
What indeed has aptly and poetically been termed, " the sun- 
shine of the mind," has in every part of life the same happy ef- 
fects ; but its presence is the most indispensable rn that early 



42 



rately ascertained, that, in ordinary states of 
health, about six ounces of bile are secreted in 
the twenty-four hours. It has been demonstrated 

stage, when the developing of the intellectual and organic system 
may be said to depend in no small degree apou its influence. 

The interest which appears due to this subject will be in- 
creased, when we look around us and behold the silent inroads 
which deformity and disease have been making upon the health 
or beauty of the present generation of females, and consider 
that their great natural susceptibility makes them peculiarly 
allied to suffering, and gives them a conformation less favour- 
able to mental tranquillity. So much is this the case in civilized 
society, that it often happens that few in number are the merely 
physical causes of evil, in comparison with that inexhaustible 
moral source which is derived from the disposition to create 
sorrows by imagination; to perpetuate them by reflection, and 
to multiply them by apprehension and anticipation. The natural 
counterbalance of this, is that organization, which renders the 
motions fugitive in proportion to their violence. But by educa- 
tion we diminish this great natural spring of ease and consola- 
tion, in the degree that we increase the disposition to reflection, 
and turn the mind upon itself. Yet such is the first aim of intel- 
lectual instruction ; and the new condition in which we thus place 
the mind ought to remind us of the delicacy and tenderness with 
which the task should be performed ; so that in proportion as 
we render the system susceptible, we may diminish the sources 
of irritation and pain. 

But it is a duty in many cases to pursue the means of di- 
minishing rather than of increasing the action pf the intellectual 
functions. When we observe a weakly physical organization 

d to that exquisite delicacy of perception, that finely con- 



43 



also, by direct experiments, that this secretion 
does not proceed at an uniform rate ; on the con- 
trary, it is known that during the time our food is 

stitnted mind, cognizable in some delicate females, at an early 
age ; we have reason to suspect that the energies of life are far 
from strong. That precocity of intellect, that brilliancy and 
exuberance of imagination, which parents are so fond of con- 
templating in their children, conceal too frequently under a 
flattering surface a frightful danger. In the strict economy 
which nature practises, this extra development of the intellect 
can scarcely take place but at the expense of some other part 
of the system; and in those young subjects in which it is re- 
markable, particularly when it is accompanied with weak sta- 
mina, it behoves us to attempt to balance the general powers, 
and to counteract this inordinate action of the intellectual func- 
tions, by adequate muscular movements in exercise. The re- 
cords of navigators furnish us with the accounts of different 
tribes of savages, who are willing to barter, for a present gra- 
tification, their most essential necessaries ; in civilized life we 
are apt to reverse this picture, and to make the sacrifice, not of 
the future to the present, but of the present to the future. Such 
is the case, when in our anxiety to give our children accomplish- 
ments, which shall decorate the years to come, we overlook the 
important wants of the present hour, though they are essential 
to that health, which alone can warrant us to expect the period, 
which such decorations are intended to embellish. 

By aiming, therefore, at this mental brilliancy, where the 
powers cf life are weak, we run great risk of destroying the 
very basis npon which it is founded, and of rendering the glare 
short-lived in proportion to its brightness. In both sexes the 
Ifoest genius appears often connected with peculiar delicacy of 



44 



digesting in the stomach, the pylorus is closed, 
and biliary secretion diminished ; whereas when 
the chyme begins to pass into the duodenum, the 

constitution ; and, under similar circumstances, it behoves us 
to be vigilant, lest, iu our too great anxiety to give expansion 
to the former, the latter should suffer irretrievably. Where an 
enemy lies in ambush in the constitution, its advances are made 
frequently under cover of those accomplishments, elegant or 
literary, with the display of which it is natural to be pleased. 
But it seems sapposed, that the studies of females, from their 
lightness and less profound nature, are less likely to be danger- 
ous to the health, than those of the other sex ; yet from this 
very cause are they frequently more so ; and hence, one reason 
why their health more frequently suffers at school than that of 
boys. The more light and superficial is the character of study, 
the lower degree of interest does it excite, and commanding 
less the activity and exhausting less the excitability of the 
mind, it increases greatly the irksomeness of the confinement. 
From this and other causes, amongst which may be generally 
considered an inadequate degree of muscular exercise, the fe- 
male habit, particularly in the early part of life, displays an 
organization of the most irritable and susceptible' character. 
Hence the prevalence of consumption, scrofula, and spinal dis- 
ease. It is, truly, at once a melancholy and appalling consider- 
ation, how large a proportion of young women of the present 
day, who are fashionably educated, whether at boarding schools 
or at home, are the victims of some one or other of these dis- 
eases : and in reflecting upon this, it is impossible not to be 
struck with the humbling lesson which is thereby read to the 
pride of man. Is, then, all the boasted intellectual superiority 
©£ the present day purchased at the expense of our physical 



45 



biliary secretion is rapidly augmented. These 
facts sufficiently prove, that the fluid in question 

powers? Does not the author of our being thus shew us, that 
we cannot highly cultivate one part of our nature without injury 
to the other? Is knowledge a weakness? Is genius a disease? 
One thing at least is certain, the bodily strength of the females 
of the upper and middle classes of society has been materially 
injured by the fashionable modes of instruction which have now 
for many years prevailed ; the parents therefore of the rising 
generation, and the teachers of it too, should have their eyes 
opened to the frequency of these diseases, and the picture of 
their miseries, their causes, and the means of their prevention, 
should be from time to time held up to them. It is only by so 
doing that those, who have, to speak collectively, the care of 
health, can be said to fulfil the duty which they owe to the public, 
or that any rational hope can be entertained of checking the 
fearful ravages of these diseases, particularly of the last, by 
leading them to reflect on these things, and their consequences. 
I would urge them to consider, whether the sum of human hap- 
piness, virtue, and social usefulness, has or has not encreased 
by this barter of physical strength and mental peace for those 
accomplishments, which, in the struggle of acquisition, render 
their possessors incapable of long retaining or fully enjoying 
them. To go beyond this point, in speaking upon a subject to 
which I have not adverted without much of anxious feeling and 
many painful recollections, would be to overstep the bounds 
which are prescribed to me as the minister of Health alone, or I 
might ask, with even yet more seriousness of inquiry, are those 
who have the care of children quite sure, that in thus far immo- 
lating them oh the altar of this world, they run no risk of de- 
priving them' of all " good hope" of *>* that which is to come f 



46 



is necessary for the separation of the chyle from 
the chyme, during its progress along the tract of 
the small intestines. The consequences indeed 
of the want of bile in the alimentary canal are 
truly momentous. 

In the first place, a defective assimilation or 
nutrition must ensue, when the peristaltic action 
of the intestines is unnaturally torpid, because the 
chyme is not presented in a proper manner to the 
mouths of the chyliferous tubes. From this source 
alone must arise a considerable share of that de- 
bility and emaciation so generally attendant upon 
complaints of this description. 

In the second place, many prejudicial chronical 
changes and extrications of injurious principles 
must take place during the retarded progress of 
the alimentary matters through the intestines, 
partly from the remora itself, and partly from the 
deficiency of bile. From this source arise those 
flatulencies, eructations, acidities, Sfc. which create 
such uneasy sensations along the whole line of the 
alimentary canal. 

In the third place, the 'extraordinary delay of 
the fecal remains, in the first passages, cannot 
but be prejudicial to health, as every one must 
have observed in his own person, during even a 



47 



temporary confinement of the bowels. From this 
source arise Piles and other disorders of the lower 
bowel ; partly from the mechanical obstruction of 
the hardened feces, partly from the torpid circu- 
lation in the liver preventing a free return of blood 
from the hemorrhoidal vessels. In this way also 
arise, in part at least, those Head-aches, so fre- 
quently attendant on constipated bowels; and 
which seem, in many instances, to be occasioned 
by the masses of hardened colluvies in the bowels 
pressing on the descending aorta, and causing an 
unusual quantity of blood to be distributed to the 
head, with pain, vertigo, and other uneasy sensa- 
tions in the sensor iurn, and about the heart. And 
here we may trace Dropsy, as I believe, to its 
source. As far as my experience goes, it is very 
seldom idiopathic, but almost constantly sympto- 
matic of visceral disease, either organic or func- 
tional ; and of all the viscera, whose derange- 
ments have the power of exciting dropsy, the liver 
may be said to hold the foremost rank. This will, 
I think, be readily admitted by every practitioner, 
who has had an opportunity of investigating dis- 
ease by dissection. 

In the fourth place, a deficient secretion of 
bile, and torpid state of the bowels admit of, or 



48 



give rise to, accumulations of mucus throughout 
the whole line of the primae viae, which prove 
exceedingly prejudicial to the gastric and intes- 
tinal digestions, and aggravate all the symptoms 
before enumerated. This mucus frequently be- 
comes so viscid as to obstruct, in a very consi- 
derable degree, the passage of chyme and faeces 
along the line of the intestines, and also the ex- 
trication of bile from the ducts of the liver into 
the duodenum, in consequence of which the fluid 
itself becomes inspissated, and obstructs the ducts 
of the liver. At other times, this mucus, by pre- 
venting the bile from passing out of the duo- 
denum downwards, causes it to rise in the sto- 
mach, which either brings on sick head-aches, or 
bilious vomitings, that are taken by the patient, 
and often by the medical attendants themselves, 
for indubitable proofs of redundancy in the secre- 
tion of bile, when the original evil was, in reality, 
a deficiency of this fluid, and a torpor of the organ 
which secreted it. 

Fifthly. The torpid action of the liver, by 
proving a check to the circulation of the blood in 
it, and of course, preventing the same quantity 
of blood being transmitted through the arteries of 
the stomach and intestines, in a given time, as 



49 



when the office of secretion is going on briskly, 
must, of necessity, produce an unequal distribution 
of blood, giving rise to various anomalous symptoms, 
but particularly head-aches, giddiness, dimness of 
sight, flushings, and irregular determinations to 
particular organs, according to the idiosyncrasy 
of the individual, and his peculiar habits of life.* 

* In order to throw some light on this subject, we have only 
to advert to certain phenomena which are constantly presenting 
themselves to our senses. Let us take sensibility, for example, 
as manifested on the cutaneous surface. In one person, the 
prick of a needle or other sharp instrument will produce but a 
slight and momentary pain — in another, exquisite suffering — in 
a third, fainting— in a fourth, lock-jaw; yet, in all these, the 
local effects will be precisely the same, namely, a slight in- 
flammatory areola round the puncture. Whence can proceed 
these various effects, but from diversity of individual disposi- 
tion — in other words, idiosyncrasy ? 

If, from the cutaneous sensibility, we pass on to the propen- 
sities or aptitudes to contract particular diseases, we shall find 
an infinite diversity in individuals. Some people will be ex- 
posed to a focus of infection for days and weeks, with impu- 
nity ; while others, of apparently similar constitutions, become 
its immediate victims. It is not robustness of constitution, nor 
equanimity of mind, which resists the contagion — but often the 
very reverse. And this is not only the case with small -pox, 
typhus fever, and the plague — the same observations will apply 
to diseases, which are caused or propagated in other and differ- 
ent modes. Every day we see blows on the head — suppressions 
of perspiration by cold — excesses in eating or drinking, borne 
D 



50 



Sixthly. Although, in general, while a torpid 
secretion of bile obtains, this thud will be insipid 
and inert, yet, from various causes, and particu- 

with little or no sensible effects by some people; while in 
others, the slightest concussion — the least excessive exercise, 
eating, or drinking, will be followed by violent inflammations of 
the head, chest, or digestive apparatus. What, but idiosyn- 
crasy, can account for these differences of result ? Again, let us 
look at these individuals when actually infected with diseases. 
Some get well in a few days — others linger a long time under the 
same affection, and a third class are quickly cut off and perish — 
the malady appearing of the same nature in all. Nor is it the 
intensity of the disease, or the extent of the inflammation, which 
can explain these differences. If we take inflammation of the 
chest, for example : in some people, who die, a small portion 
only of one lobe in the lungs will be found inflamed — in others, 
almost the whole of both lobes will be thus affected, and yet 
they will speedily recover. In these last, the vital resistance is 
superior to the disease — in the former class it is inferior. Now, 
as it is quite impossible to say, in the beginning of a disease, 
whether or not the degree of vital power is equal to overcome 
the malady, since there are no marks of external form or inter- 
nal function by which it can be known — so the science of prog- 
nosis (or the art of foretelling the events of diseases) is pro- 
verbially fallible, and it is to be feared will ever remain so. A 
history of the individual's habits, former ailments, and peculiari- 
ties of disposition, is the only information of any real value to 
the medical practitioner, since there are few persons who have 
not some part of the body weaker than the rest. In many fami- 
lies the weakness of various parts, and consequently their lia- 
bility to disease, is even hereditary. On this account, the same 



51 



larly from atmospheric influence, the biliary organ 
is occasionally roused, for short periods, from its 
lethargic state; at which times, a comparatively 
inordinate secretion takes place, but of a very 
depraved quality, as evinced by the dark and va- 
riegated colour of the stools — by their peculiar 
fetor — and by the various uneasy sensations pro- 
duced in the line of the alimentary canal. 

Seventhly. During a torpid state of the bi- 
liary secretion, there is frequently an absorption 
of this fluid into the general circulation, probably 
during its delay in the biliary pores themselves, 
giving a decided tinge to the eye, or even to the 

disease often produces different symptoms in different individu- 
als, and affects in one patient the head, in another the chest, in 
a third the abdomen, &c. so as often to render it doubtful at 
first sight what the disease really is. These remarks might be 
extended to much greater length in their application to constitu- 
tional peculiarities with regard to certain articles of food and 
medicine — but such are familiar to every one. Who, for in- 
stance, does not know that the smallest morsel of cheese to some 
persons is almost poisonous — that a single currant or strawberry 
will produce in others the most distressing spasms and convul- 
sions — and that one grain of mercury will now and then occasion 
the most deplorable salivation? Who then will be surprized to 
be told, that I have met with one case of individuality so peculiar, 
that ten Mustard Seeds, taken once a day only, were sufficient 
(I speak the language of the subject of it) to fulfil every desir- 
able purpose ? 



52 



skin; or else that peculiar sallowness, denomi- 
nated so appropriately bilious. The absorption of 
genuine and healthy bile, as in simple obstruction 
of the ducts causing jaundice, is accompanied, as 
is well known, by a peculiar lassitude of body, 
and despondency of mind; from which we may 
judge of the effects produced by that habitual 
state of absorption, when a depraved fluid is con- 
stantly draining into the circulation, and diffusing 
its deleterious influence over every function of the 
body and of the mind ! The effects resulting 
from this cause are, in all probability, greatly 
aggravated by non- secretion, or the delay of those 
principles in the blood which, in a state of health, 
would have been converted into bile. To this 
source may, in part at least, be traced the origin 
of those symptoms hitherto, and perhaps not im- 
properly, termed Nervous, which are as distress- 
ing to the patient, as they are trying to the prac- 
titioner. The latter, indeed, frequently treats 
them as ideal, or imaginary; but from this, and 
a following consideration, they may probably be 
classed as real and severe affections of the nerv- 
ous system.* 

* Who is unacquainted with tbe powerful influence of the 
liver on the nervous system ? or who is ignorant of the miserably 



53 



The absorption and non-secretion of bile, 
while they account for the peculiar tinge of the 
eye and skin, explain another circumstance which 
often passes unnoticed, viz. the pain and heat and 
sometimes difficulty so frequently experienced in 
making water, whenever the biliary system is de- 
ranged. This symptom is almost constant, I am 
told, in all severe hepatic affections in tropical 

distressing states of the mind, wliich frequently arise from he- 
patic disease, in consequence of this influence? Of all the sym- 
pathetic effects, which spring from the derangement of the 
biliary organs, I know of none more perplexing; nor is there 
any class of patients more to be pitied, than such as are called 
nervous and hypochondriacal. Their inward distress is extreme, 
and yet they seldom excite sympathy in those that surround 
them. How many patients have I seen, whose life was miserable 
from such causes, and who would have most gladly exchanged 
it for death, had not the resources of religion been present for 
their relief and consolation. It is indeed a miserable sight to 
remark the melancholy, the irritability, the despondency, the 
languor, in short the almost total incapability of dragging on ex- 
istence, which is frequently observed in such patients, although 
to a spectator they scarcely appear deficient in health, or to 
want any of the ordinary sources of enjoyment. This picture is 
not overcharged. The distress often exceeds it, and not unfre- 
quently leads the unfortunate sufferer to commit that crime 
which, above all others, excites the most painful ideas of the 
weakness of human nature, or induces such a state of mental 
imbecility, and discontent with the world, as renders him a 
burthen to himself and his friend*. 



54 



climates; and though in a somewhat less degree, 
iff this country, where it is chiefly the function of 
the liver that is disturbed, yet, in a majority of 
instances, it may be detected, and it will assist 
in the diagnosis of the disease. Even the furred 
tongue and bitter taste in the mouth, though ge- 
nerally dependent on a disordered state of the 
stomach, may frequently be attributable to this 
absorption and non-secretion of bile. 

Eighthly. The torpor of an organ, especially 
an organ of such magnitude as the liver, must, by 
its sympathies or associations, occasion consider- 
able derangement in the balance of excitement 
throughout the system ; in other words, while the 
torpor is diffused from the liver to the alimentary 
canal, partly from sympathy, and partly from the 
deficiency of bile, a morbid excess of irritability 
accumulates in the nervous system, which inequi- 
librium of excitement explains, in a great measure, 
those menial symptoms accompanying a disordered 
state of the biliary and digestive organs. 

It must be recollected here, and well it deserves 
to be borne in mind, that all those effects on other 
organs and parts of the system resulting from as- 
sociation with the liver, become, in their turn, 
causes or re-agent!?, reflecting back upon their 



55 



source an aggravation of those ills, which were 
originally disseminated thence. This is so clearly 
evinced in the action and reaction between the 
biliary and nervous systems, that, in many in- 
stances, it is difficult to say in which system the 
malady commenced. Indeed, any great degree 
of grief, anxiety, or other depressing passions of 
the mind, will as certainly derange the functions 
of the liver and digestive organs, as the derange- 
ments of those organs will produce despondency, 
irritability, fickleness of temper, and other disturb- 
ances of the nervous system. 

This principle, or inequilibrium, in the balance 
of excitement in the system from the torpor of one 
organ or set of organs, is applicable to an ex- 
planation of several diseases under the head of 
Nervous Diseases, which have hitherto baffled all 
speculations. In St. Vitus's Dance, for instance, 
there is as invariably a torpor of the uterine 
system, or biliary and digestive organs, as there 
is an inordinate excitement in a particular class 
of muscles and nerves, where nature appears to 
exhaust or expend the morbid accumulation, by 
what appear ridiculous and extravagant motions. 
This seems the natural cure of the disease, and 
of course requires length of time for its comple- 



50 



tion ; but the most effectual artificial cures are 
conducted exactly on the principle in question, 
viz. by a course of such medicines as are best 
calculated to re-establish the balance of the circu- 
lation and excitement, and restore the energy and 
action of the uterine, biliary and digestive organs. 
On this principle also, may be explained many 
cases of Epilepsy, Hysteria, <^c. fyc. where the 
balance of excitement is occasionally, or periodi- 
cally disturbed, and a morbid excess of it thrown 
on the brain and nervous system. Where this is 
the case it is of great importance to attempt to 
interrupt the regularity of such attacks — for they 
are oftentimes continued by the power of habit 
only. As the traces of ideas which are not from 
time to time renewed, gradually become entirely 
effaced, so the Epileptic and Hysterical aptitude 
may be destroyed.* 

* Of this an instance has been brought before me since the 
first edition of these observations was published, and it is one 
which evidences in no slight degree the value of the medicine 
the use of which I am advocating. A lad of twelve years of 
age, who had been long subject to a regular epileptic seizure 
once a week, and who had had the advantage of medical advice 
in London, for about two years, to no purpose, took the Mus- 
tard Seed with so much advantage as to cause the fits to cease 
for six weeks — they have now returned, but I am well satisfied, 



57 



There is great reason to believe that hydro- 
cephalus, in a majority of cases, depends on a 
preceding torpid state of the liver and bowels, 
occasioning a morbid irritability in the vessels and 
coverings of the brain. Independently of the 
known sympathy between the brain and liver, any 
obstruction to the free circulation of the blood 
through the latter organ will cause plethora and 
congestion in the former, and thus lead to effusion 
in an organ so soft and delicate as the brain of a 
child. The best mode of cure in hydrocephalus 
illustrates this reasoning : if the premonitory symp- 
toms of hydrocephalus be noticed, and the torpid 
abdominal viscera be roused into action by proper 
means, the actual inflammation and effusion in the 
head will generally be prevented. And who can 
doubt that many cases of Apoplexy and of Hemi- 
plegia, or that many affections of the Chest, arise 
from the same source, who has any knowledge 
either of the doctrine of sympathy, or of the con- 
sequences of irregular distributions of nervous and 

that a perseverance in the use of a remedy by which they have 
been so much interfered with, will efi'ect an ultimate care — and 
upon the above principle ; the habits of disorder, like the habits 
of the man, being once materially broken in upon are not easily 
re-estublished. 



58 



vascular energy? I would particularly specify 
Asthma and Water in the Chest, and that pecu- 
liar state of lungs which is so appropriately deno- 
minated Weakness of Chest. 

I trust that under these eight heads, a rational 
explanation has been given of those symptoms 
depending on, or connected with, derangement of 
function in the biliary and digestive organs, with- 
out any hypothetical speculations; and if this be 
granted, we have probably gone some way in 
elucidating the wide range, not merely of what 
are termed Bilious, but of Nervous, Hypochondri- 
acal, and Hysterical complaints. At all events, 
whether we consider these last as causes or con- 
sequences of the functional derangements in ques- 
tion, we shall find that our best remedial measures 
hinge on this view of the subject; and that, con- 
sidering the hitherto intractable nature of these 
disorders, the success attendant upon a plan of 
treatment founded upon it, will be as superior to 
any other practice, as the explanation here at- 
tempted is more simple than the loose and indefi- 
nite ideas so long prevalent in regard to this class 
of human infirmities. 

Before entering on the causes and treatment 
of biliary derangements, I shall add a few words 



59 



on a subject which has not attracted sufficient 
notice. Not only are glandular enlargements and 
many local sores* but also a very great proportion 
of cutaneous eruptions and blotches, to be traced 
to disordered states of the chylopoietic viscera — 
the most effective measures then, which we can 
use for the cure of these disorders, are such as 

* These affections have commonly been considered as the 
offspring of an impure state of the blood; and when we see 
persons, particularly young ones, in whom every scratch festers 
into a sore, as in scrofula or scurvy, and to whom every acci- 
dent is the occasion of after^suffering , as is evidenced by the 
general history given of almost every tumor, as well as of every 
Spine, Hip, and Knee disease — when we observe that the at- 
mosphere alone will change the disposition of every action — 
that poisons introduced and acting upon the circulating medium, 
will induce the most powerful effects upon the whole system, it 
is impossible not to be humoralists in a considerable degree — 
we cannot exclude the influence of a depraved state of the 
blood; but as it is invariably connected with, if not produced by, 
disorder of the digestive organs, the effects which partly arise 
from both causes are often exclusively attributed to one. There 
is indeed no case of disorder in which the stomach and other 
parts of the digestive system are not affected, and the profession 
and the world are under the greatest obligations to Mr. Aber- 
nethy and others, for disclosing to them, in the most convincing 
and impressive manner, the truth, which so long lay unheeded, 
that health and strength spring from a right performance of the 
chvlopoietic functions, and weakness and disease from their dis- 
order and derangement. 



60 



tend with the greatest certainty to augment and 
meliorate the biliary and other secretions. 

Mental Agitation. I have already stated, that 
the people of this country have a higher degree of 
mental energy, and experience, from their poli- 
tical, commercial, and manufacturing habits, a 
greater range of mental agitation, than the in- 
habitants of most other countries. The more 
closely we watch the play of the passions, or in 
other words, the effects of mind and feeling on 
the material fabric, the more shall we be convinc- 
ed of their powerful influence on the functions of 
the liver and digestive organs in particular. The 
receipt of a single letter, or message, announcing 
a melancholy event, in which our interests are 
concerned, will so completely change the nature 
and appearance of the biliary fluid, together with 
the gastric and intestinal secretions, that they can 
scarcely be recognized as such. Every thing, in 
short, which disturbs the tranquillity of the mind, 
interrupts the healthy functions of the liver and 
digestive organs; which, in their turn, react on, 
and aggravate the original causes. These causes 
alone, were there no others, would be sufficient 
to account for the wide spread of functional de- 
rangements of the biliary organ in this country. 



61 



Physical Derangement. Ot the evils which may 
be traced to this cause, I have already spoken 
even more fully than of those arising from Mental 
Agitation, by which term it will be perceived that 
I mean not only violent emotions of joy and grief, 
but every state in which the mind is deprived of 
tranquillity, either by the over-exertion of its pow- 
ers, or by any other cause. In this case, how- 
ever, as well as in the other, I wish to sum up in 
a few words what has been said of the evils them- 
selves, before I proceed to discuss their treat- 
ment. Among these I have assigned the first 
place to those arising from atmospherical vicissi- 
tude ; next to this I have placed the consequences 
of that intercourse which this country is obliged 
to maintain with its colonies; and to these I have 
added, what is indeed the most numerous class 
of ills, the effects of intemperance in food and 
drink, and especially of using fermented liquors. 



The pains which I have taken in exposing the 
causes and effects of these evils, (which, for the 
sake of perspicuity, I have just summed up under 
two general heads,) will greatly abridge the obser- 



62 



vations which it is necessary to make on their 
treatment, which latter is rendered clear, and, in 
general effectual, by a thorough knowledge of the 
former. Whereas the man who prescribes for the 
name, without taking the trouble to investigate the 
nature of a disease, is perpetually blundering, and 
by the misapplication of remedies finds himself 
frequently embarrassed and disappointed. By 
studying the causes of a disease, we arm ourselves 
with so many remedies, not only for the prevention, 
but the removal of it; and by being minutely ac- 
quainted with its symptoms our resources are 
multiplied when we undertake the treatment. 

It is not always true that a disease must be 
attacked in its seat, and that combating symptoms 
makes no progress towards a cure. We shall 
find in many instances, that every symptom which 
we alleviate has an influence, more or less pow- 
erful, on the origin. We may specify the heat of 
the skin in fever. Every one will allow that this 
is merely a symptom or effect of fever, not the 
essence or the seat of it ; yet what relief does it 
afford to the patient, and what a mitigation of the 
disease follows, when we have subdued this symp- 
tom ! So, in the disease now under considera- 
tion, constipation of the bowels is a very general 



63 



symptom or effect ; and yet, what essential relief 
does the simple removal of this symptom afford ! 
In general, however, we may divide the treatment 
into two heads — withdrawing the causes, and ob- 
viating their effects. 

Removal of Causes. Many of the causes, 
which induce functional and incipient structural 
derangement of the biliary organ, cannot be 
avoided ; and therefore we can endeavour only to 
counteract their effects. The natural atmosphe- 
rical vicissitudes of this climate are beyond our 
controul ; but we shall in general avoid injury 
from them by attention to dress, and by taking off 
our w r et clothes as soon as we leave off exercise. 
The close sympathy which exists between the 
feet and the stomach, and between the stomach 
and the live »r, will point out the necessity of paying 
the utmost attention to the warmth and dryness 
of the feet, a circumstance of more importance, 
as a remedial measure in these disorders, than is 
generally imagined. 

Having shewn that sudden checks to perspira- 
tion, and also long continued cold, are the fruitful 
sources of hepatic complaints, it is plain that 
flannel next the skin, and a sufficiency of bed- 
clothes at night, are preventive measures of great 



64 



importance. As a superabundant perspiration 
renders the extreme vessels more liable to sudden 
collapse, from the application of cold, it is evident 
that we ought to avoid that kind of exercise in 
the heat of the day, and particularly in the sun, 
which so inordinately increases the cutaneous dis- 
charge. When such causes are unavoidable, our 
next precaution against the bad consequences is, 
not to desist at once from exercise, but above all 
things to avoid a current of air, the application of 
any thing wet, and the drinking of cold liquids. 

Abstinence from spirituous or fermented li- 
quors is almost a sine qua non in this part of the 
treatment of hepatic complaints ; and the greatest 
attention to the quantity and quality of food is 
highly necessary. In respect to quality, no ge- 
neral rule can be laid down, as constitutions differ 
so much. The oily and rancid animal, together 
with the flatulent vegetable, foods, are for the 
most part prejudicial ; and in respect to quantity, 
the rule ought always to be, that we eat no more 
than we can comfortably digest. This rule will 
be easily understood by every person who labours 
under bilious derangements. 

Those mental causes which produce or aggra- 
vate corporeal diseases, though apparently most, 



65 



are least within our power, either as to prevention 
or removal. The philosopher may declaim, and 
the divine may preach against the folly and danger 
of giving way to despondency and dread ; but it 
is in vain ! Wherever there is derangement in the 
hepatic functions, there will, in general, be low 
spirits ; timidity ; fickleness of mind ; irritability 
of temper, and hypochondria ; whatever efforts 
we may make to the contrary, by way of reason- 
ing. Religion is more powerful ; but the corpo- 
real disease will often so cloud the spiritual func- 
tions, as to convert the bright hopes and conso- 
lations of revelation into gloomy superstition and 
despair. 

Those causes of hepatic derangements arising 
from certain trades and occupations, are some- 
times to be removed, especially among the more 
opulent classes. As all sedentary employments, 
and those which keep the mind on the rack, are 
injurious in the class of diseases in question, so 
are they to be changed, if circumstances will 
admit ; and if this cannot be done, their perni- 
cious effects should be as much counteracted as 
possible by occasional relaxation, and such other 
means as a judicious practitioner can frequently 
suggest. 



66 



Medical Treatment. The variety of causes 
which produce hepatic derangements, both of 
function and of structure, would seem to point 
out a corresponding variety in the treatment ; but 
this variety principally regards the prevention or 
removal of those causes themselves ; for, when 
their effects are once produced, a considerable 
similarity obtains in the means of repairing the 
injury. For instance, in acute inflammation of 
the liver, whether the inflammation be caused by 
inordinate exercise in the heat of the sun, by in- 
toxication, or by cold or wet applied to the heated 
body, the plan of treatment to be adopted will be 
almost the same. So in cholera morbus, which 
may be considered a functional derangement of 
the biliary organ, the same treatment will, in ge- 
neral, be necessary, whether the cause be heat, 
cold, alternations of temperature, or ingesta, oc- 
casioning a violent orgasm throughout the diges- 
tive organs. 

In what may be termed the minor or subordi- 
nate means of relief, however, a great variety in 
the treatment may be advantageously employed ; 
since it has been shewn, that every symptom 
which we mitigate or remove, not only affords a 
partial relief to the sufferings of the patient, but 



67 



operates beneficially, more or less, on the origin 
of the disease itself. This is of infinite conse- 
quence in the class of infirmities under considera- 
tion ; since it often requires the utmost address 
on the part of the practitioner to induce the pa- 
tient to persevere sufficiently long in any one 
plan of treatment, to be effectual. Hence, we 
are frequently forced to lop the tree, branch by 
branch, rather than cut it at the root, merely 
because the patient soon becomes tired, if daily 
advantages are not gained. We must not, how- 
ever, be diverted from the attack of the enemy 
in his strong hold, by flying from point to point, 
and relieving symptoms only while the great body 
of the disease remains unsubdued, and indeed un- 
suspected** 

* It is a wise maxim in Physic, that complaints which are 
long in their advancement, and of long standing, are generally 
only to be remedied by long continued curative attentions. 
Common sense points oat the fallacy of expecting to eradicate 
old established disorders by any violent or sudden remedies, 
occasionally and interruptedly employed, and the laws of life 
are equally inimical to such attempts. It is by a weaker power, 
steadily and constantly exerted, that the force of habit is by 
slow degrees eventually overcome. The warnings of dangerous 
diseases should never be forgotten ; and the diet and medical 
regimen suited to such disordered states or tendencies should 
be undeviatingly persevered in. In no disease can the skill of 



68 



I shall begin, therefore, with the essential, 
and gradually descend through the various aux- 
iliary means of relief, which experience and ob- 
servation have stamped with the seal of utility, in 
this interesting class of human affections. 

It has already been stated, that in ninety-nine 
cases out of the hundred, there is a deficiency 
or irregularity, together with vitiation of the bi- 
liary secretion. As for a mere redundant secretion 
of bile, the thing itself is a trifle, and the treat- 
ment simple and easy. It is the torpid liver 
which every hour arrests our attention, and re- 
quires our exertions to obviate its long catalogue 
of effects. 

The three primary indications to be followed 
are these : — 

1st. — To increase and meliorate the biliary 
fluid. 

2nd. — To procure the daily removal of the 
vitiated secretions of the liver and other digestive 
organs. 

the Physician be proof against the want of care in the general 
habits of the patient ; and those who are not in some degree 
their own Physicians whilst suffering under disorders such as 
these, have no right to censure the advice which they hut im- 
perfectly follow, or perhaps, by their negligence, counteract. 



69 



3rd. — To increase the tone and digestive power 
of the alimentary canal. 

There are some causes which increase the se- 
cretion of bile, but deteriorate its quality : such, 
for instance, as a residence in hot climates, an 
intemperate use of fat and oily food, violent ex- 
ercise, &c. These, therefore, cannot be safely 
employed to stimulate a torpid liver; since the 
torpidity itself is frequently the result of long sti- 
mulation from these causes, particularly the first. 

A moderately warm and steady atmosphere is, 
however, peculiarly beneficial to the complaints 
in question, as it keeps up a mild action of the 
perspiratory vessels on the surface of the body, and 
by the sympathy which exists between the skin 
and the liver, of the secreting vessels in the liver. 

This accounts for the bad state of health, and 
even aggravation of their complaints, which tro- 
pical invalids so often experience in returning to 
northern countries. The cuticular and hepatic 
secretions are so interrupted and checked, that 
they are obliged to be constantly taking medicine, 
and bowel complaints very generally harass them 
for a considerable period after their arrival in their 
native, but estranged, country. Hence the genial 
skies of the southern parts of Europe and of Ma- 



70 



deira, are at first infinitely more salubrious for the 
Anglo-East or West Indian, returning with he- 
patic complaints, than the raw and variable at- 
mosphere of England. 

As internal medicines, there are none which 
so steadily increase and ameliorate the hepatic 
secretion as some of the mild preparations of mer- 
cury. Whether this mineral acts on the liver as 
on other glands, by increasing its action, or whe- 
ther it acts in a specific manner, as on the salivary 
glands, for instance, I need not stop to inquire ; 
but that it does augment and improve the biliary 
fluid, in a very remarkable degree, both when it 
salivates and purges, is a fact which requires no 
support from argument. 

A gentle and gradual introduction of mercury 
into the system is, however, all that in most cases 
is necessary ; and as soon as the stools become 
yellow and more copious, the patient, in general, 
experiences an exhilaration of spirits, and food is 
relished and digested better. The eye and com- 
plexion, soon after that, clear; and animation is 
restored to the countenance. After keeping things 
n this state, for a longer or a shorter time, accord- 
ng to the stage of the disease, a course of open- 
ng medicines— or of the Cheltenham "Waters, 



71 



combined with bitters and tonics, ought to be 
entered on, and continued for a considerable pe- 
riod. For the above purpose, the blue pill in 
two, three, or four grain doses, every night, com- 
bined or alternated with a purgative, generally 
answers best without ruffling the constitution, or 
producing much uneasiness of the bowels. 

Where it is not judged prudent to bring the 
system under the influence of mercury, and in 
most cases it would be at least unnecessary, in 
many detrimental,* the object should be to adopt 
a course of medicine which will at once improve 
the biliary secretion, clear the bowels, and im- 
prove the digestion. 

Such a medicine, and generally speaking, such 
a course, I firmly believe to be that, which Mr. 

* I have twice before adverted to the subject of the abase of 
medicine : but I would again say, in the contemplation of dis- 
ease we should ever take into account the evils which necessa- 
rily accompany the use of powerful remedies, lest whilst van- 
quishing one foe, we raise up another to be opposed in its turn. 
Medicine has been not unaptly compared to a torrent, which not 
only carries away with it the stones from a field, but likewise a 
good part of the field itself: and there are no cases in which the 
justness of the comparison is more likely to be established than 
in those now under consideration, if a due regard be not paid to 
the strength, which the patient yet retains. 



72 



Turnor has so strongly recommended, and has 
laboured with so much philanthropy, and with 
such signal success, to bring into use. That it 
is one of no common influence over the manifold 
uneasy sensations attendant upon a certain condi- 
tion of frame, is with me no matter of doubt — 
nay, I am thoroughly persuaded, that neither its 
powers, nor its worth, are as yet otherwise than 
very imperfectly understood, much as its virtues 
have been thought to be overrated, and the state- 
ment of what it has accomplished overdrawn* 
As far as my experience of its effects has gone, 
I feel bound to say that it deserves to be hailed 
as one of the most decided discoveries of general 
usefulness and applicability, which has ever been 

* Nothing could be a greater bar to improvement in the prac- 
tice of medicine, than the supine belief that nothing can be 
added to our knowledge of the qualities of those remedies which 
have been long in use. We know, however, that the greater 
number of those who are stimulated by the laudable ambition of 
distinguishing themselves as the benefactors of mankind, direct 
their efforts to the discovery of new remedies, instead of insti- 
tuting experiments with those whose medicinal powers are 
already known. But I believe it will be conceded by the liberal 
and well-informed of the profession, that much may yet be dis- 
covered with regard to the powers even of those medicines 
which have been in use from time immemorial, and which are 
familiar to every practitioner. 



73 



made known* — one of the greatest blessingsj|that 
has ever been dispensed for suffering man — yet 
more, (to speak the language of one not less be- 
nefited by its agency than myself) " I fully expect 
that it will considerably lengthen human life in 
this kingdom, and finally be adopted throughout 
the world." Unlike almost all other means of 
relief to the major part of those who stand in need 
of habitual medical attention, it may be taken 
without a single sensation of disgust — under any 
circumstances which are not such as to render its 
use obvidusly improper — and for any length of 
time. It accomplishes the purpose of its admi- 
nistration without occasioning that disturbance to, 
or exciting that unnatural action in, the system, 
which is almost invariably the case when ordinary 
medicines are given ; in other words, without in 

* From this statement I have been charged with ignorantly 
pretending that the medicinal virtues of Mustard Seed are newly 
discovered : a charge somewhat ridiculous, when in another 
page I had said, " the virtues of Mustard Seed are spoken of by 
all the Fathers of Physic," and had given the opinion of Pliny 
at full length, as presenting a concise abstract of what might be 
found respecting it in their works. I still maintain, (and I think 
the reader will see, that it is all which I originally intended to 
assert,) that " the general usefulness and applicability" of Mus- 
tard Seed is but newly discovered. 



74 



anywise interfering with Nature's own operation ; 
it seldom, if ever, disagrees, (never, as far as I 
have been able to learn, but from the idiosyncrasy, 
or the caprice of the patient,) and as seldom fails 
to be a source of transcendent benefit to him. 
The dose must be regulated by the effects pro- 
duced, and should be taken in equal proportions 
three times in the course of the four and twenty 
hours.* One or two stools should be procured 

* This direction it is important to observe. It is an axiom 
in Medicine, that alteratives produce the best effects when ad- 
ministered in small doses : they do no good when, either by 
being given in an increased dose, or by being combined with 
other substances, they are hurried off by the first passages ; they 
should be suffered to act on the absorbents, and ultimately be 
carried off by the other different emunctories. Now as the ob- 
ject of the medicine here spoken of is not simply relief to the 
bowels, but the restoration or communication of vigour, through 
their instrumentality, to the whole frame, like all other tonics it 
should be taken regularly in divided doses, and at such inter- 
vals as will insure its uninterrupted influence. The aperient 
effect produced by it then should govern not the number of the 
doses, but only the quantity of each dose. It is, however, of no 
less moment that this effect should be as regularly produced : 
indeed a knowledge how to regulate the alvine evacuation, is of 
the greatest importance towards the prevention of disease ; yet, 
odd as it appears, there are but few people who understand 
what constitutes a sufficient evacuation; costiveness gives no 
pain, and if they have none and go to stool (without considering 



75 



each day by it, and no more. It should be per- 
severed in for a sufficient length of time* and 
such will be the alleviation of uncomfortable feel- 
ing, that the invalid will be at length anxious to 
continue its use. In many of the more harassing 
and afflictive complaints of females, I am anti- 
cipating the most beneficial results ; nor am I less 
confident in my expectations as to the unequivocal 
good which will be reaped from it as an auxiliary 
to the Waters of this place,! in almost all the 

if it is a sufficient stool) they think that all is done — yet in many 
cases this is the very hinge on which health tarns. Hence the 
necessity of specific advice, on this point, to those who either 
wish to preserve good health, or who are in quest of the lost 
treasure. A French author — Cabanis, in his Rapports da Phy- 
sique et da Moral de Fhomme — a work replete with interest and 
information, attributes all diseases to derangement of the bas 
ventre, and, with some qualifications, he is indisputably right. 

* Vide Note, page 67. 

1 1 cannot here omit to make a single remark upon that class 
of medicines to which these waters belong, according as it does 
with the principle for which I have contended in speaking of 
the operative effects of the vegetable agent, which it is the object 
of these pages to bring into more extended notice — I mean the 
Neutral Salts. As thev do all that can be effected by an evacu- 
ation from the intestines, without acting strongly upon the mov- 
ing fibres, they give no stimulus, at least no inflammatory stimu- 



76 



disordered states in which they are to be recom- 
mended, particularly in those where, from delicacy 
of health or any other cause, they induce such a 



lus, to the whole system, and are therefore most usefully em- 
ployed when any inflammatory disposition prevails in it. When 
largely diluted, as is the case in this, the best, form of their 
administration, their operation is most beneficial. For the water, 
having performed its strengthening and exhilarating office upon 
the stomach, passes quickly into the intestines as fluids do, car- 
rying along with it more or less of all its ingredients, but parti- 
cularly its purgative. When there, the purgative, by its great 
dilution and consequent dispersion all over the internal surface of 
the canal, stimulates the innumerable little exhalent vessels, 
with which it is crowded, into a plentiful secretion : and not- 
withstanding the stimulus may be but slight on any particular 
part, on account of the minuteness of the particles of the Salt, 
yet as they are universally diffused, and act upon the whole system 
of exhalents at once, a more sudden, easy, copious, and expeditious 
evacuation is produced, than what is often obtainable from a 
much larger quantity of any of the more stimulating purgatives 
less attenuated ; attended at the same time with these import- 
ant advantages ; that as the stimulus is gentle, no griping pain is 
usually excited : and as it is superficial, the particles are soon 
washed off in the general current, without leaving behind them 
any of those disagreeable feelings, which usually follow the use 
of other cathartics. 

That the Cheltenham Salt also owes its great superiority in 
the particular circumstances I have mentioned, chiefly to the 
principle of attenuation, will appear still more evidently from 
comparing it with other purgatives of the same class: as we 



77 



degree of exhaustion, as to lead to sensations of 
faintness, anxiety, and lassitude. As a remedy 
for the commoner diseases of children, particu- 
larly in cases which require perpetuated attention, 
as Worms, Abdominal Tumor and Marasmus,* it 
will be found such a medicine as has hitherto been 
a desideratum; and I have little doubt of its 
being acknowledged to be equally serviceable in 
most of the more inveterate ailments of after life — 
as Gout, Rheumatism, Asthma, Dropsy, Para- 
lysis, Paraplegia, Tic Douloureux, Cramp, and 



find that according to the quantity of water they retain in their 
crystallization, and their consequent degree of solubility, the 
nearer or more remote in general is their resemblance to it in 
their mode of operation. 

* Of these two last diseases, in conjunction, a most aggra- 
vated case, attended with so much effusion into the cavity of 
the abdomen, as to require the operation of tapping, is just now 
under my care, and is bearing highly honourable testimony to 
the truth of the above declaration. The subject of it, an intel- 
ligent little girl, four years and a half old, had been for a series 
of weeks before I saw her gradually wasting away, whilst the 
size of her belly was gradually increasing, until her appearance 
more accurately resembled that of a spider, than that of her 
former self — having prepared her for the agency of the Mustard 
Seed, I put her upon it, aud its good effect was soon percepti- 
ble. Her recovery is proceeding steadily. 



78 



many affections of the Lower Intestines* and Kid- 
neys. As a Medical preventive of Phthisis, too, 
I will venture to predict its usefulness; I have 
already ascertained its advantages over the usual 
remedies for those irregularities of system in young 
females, which so often lead to greater evils, and 
not unfrequently to this their consummation ; and 
I can well conceive its certain applicability to the 
management of that change which takes place in 
more advanced female life. To Mothers or Nurses 
who are suckling sickly infants, it is in an especial 
manner helpful, rendering them, as it does at 
once, the receivers and bestowers of remedial 
aid; and it will not be found without value as a 

* Amongst these may be specified — bleeding and irritable 
Piles, Tenesmus, Prolapsus, Fissures, Ulcers, Fistula, and more 
especially the greater proportion of cases considered to be, and 
actually treated as, cases of Stricture. Arising, as the greater 
part of them do, from a disordered state of the digestive organs 
generally, the cure of them will be effected by the correction 
of the general condition of the intestinal canal : and, most cer- 
tainly, by such medicines as tend to restore the natural secre- 
tion of the internal surface of the intestines, without exciting 
any thing like onnatural action in them : and I am not aware of 
any medicine which thus acts, so uniformly, upon that surface, 
or preserves its capability of doing so throughout its whole 
course along it, with so much certainty and benignity as that of 
which I am speaking. 



79 



substitute for more objectionable means of reco- 
very after Fever, Measles, Small-pox, and other 
debilitating diseases : indeed wherever we want 
an efficient and safe stimulus, that will act upon 
the whole system, and more especially upon the 
nervous and chylopoietic systems, I know of 
none preferable to the Mustard Seed. It is at 
once a Tonic, in the best sense of the term — an 
Aperient, of unrivaled superiority — and a Sedative, 
of the most soothing and salutary kind. And in 
this way it is that it produces its three-fold kindly 
office: 1st, by yielding a considerable quantity 
of a mild assimilating mucilage most friendly to 
an irritable state of stomach and bowels: 2dly, 
by its gradually and gratefully stimulating effects 
upon the whole interior surface of both: and 
3dly, by its slightly mechanical action, assisting 
in the propulsion of their contents. Hence it at 
the same time strengthens and invigorates in a 
very remarkable degree the whole line of the ali- 
mentary canal, and consequently improves the 
digestion and assimilation of food ; and with these 
the appetite, sleep, and general health. To the 
poor it is invaluable in every point of view; to 
them it is both food and medicine,* and is on this 

* To illustrate and con6rm this, I cannot help adding the 
testimony of Mr. Tumor, who thus writes to me :— •" On visiting 



80 



account peculiarly calculated to meet the nume- 
rous and formidable physical evils with which they 
have to contend, and to which they are peculiarly 

poor persons after they have taken the Mustard Seed about a 
fortnight or three weeks, the following dialogue has almost 
universally taken place : — 

1 How are you going on? 

'lama great deal better — I feel quite a different man. 

* Now tell me the truth ; I dont want a flattering answer. 

1 "Why, Sir, I must be better, (and placing both hands on 
the stomach and abdomen) I feel so much stronger within — I had 
rather miss my dinner than the Mustard Seed.'" — Or can I for- 
bear from founding upon it, and upon a similar testimony borne 
to myself by a person in the higher walks of life, when speaking 
to her on the subject of its utility as a substitute for food in 
some cases where food could not be taken, an opinion that it 
may prove a more efficacious means of supporting, if not of pro- 
longing, existence, than those to which we have hitherto been 
obliged to have recourse in those deplorable circumstances to 
which persons are sometimes reduced by stricture of the oesoph- 
agus, &c. ultimate prostration of strength from fever, or other 
causes of exceeding weakness. — It was simply this : < What 
was the reason you continued the Seed when, as you tell me, 
you had given it up as a means of relief to your complaints ? ' 
■ I did so because I found that it afforded me all the comfort 
both of a cordial and of food, without occasioning me the incon- 
venience produced by the administration of either/ 

It may be worth while here to add, that I derived from the 
same source the gratification of knowing that good might indeed 
be the result of my bringing the subject of these pages more 
deliberately before the public eye. This lady had many months 
before I saw her, been recommended to take the Mustard Seed, 



81 



exposed. It is a remedy adapted at once to in- 
fancy and to old age. It enables the young to 
struggle against the morbid debility frequently 
attaching to their tender years, and it supports the 
aged under the pressure of those infirmities gene- 
rally annexed to declining life — whilst in every 
stage of existence, and in every scale of being, 
it would seem to impart the power of resisting the 
effects of sudden changes of atmosphere, and thus 
to obviate that host of evils, which flow from our 
variable and uncertain climate. Those who are 
acquainted with the effects of climate on the 
human frame, will not esteem it paradoxical if I 
also state my conviction, that this remedy will be 
no less effectual against the evils, which so com- 
monly result from a residence in the East, or 
West Indies — and this not only by its generally 
beneficial operation, but more especially by its 
direct effect upon the chylopoietic viscera, forti- 

and she did take it, and with much benefit ; but taking it as she 
did, without knowing why or wherefore she took it, and finding 
after a while that it failed to accomplish what she alone ex- 
pected it was to do for her (I mean as a substitute for other 
aperients), she gave it up as a medicine ; and had recourse to it 
only for the above-named purpose. She has now resumed it 
upon principle, and is recovering the loss which she sustained by 
her unfortunate intermission of its stated ase. 
F 



82 



fying the system against the attacks to which it 
is there peculiarly subjected, but by its serving as 
a ivholcsome substitute for all those injurious sti- 
muli which are (from the idea of their being ne- 
cessary) so constantly resorted to for this purpose. 
Thus, I believe, it might be found to counteract 
both the natural and artificial causes of many of 
these disorders. Should these expectations be 
realized, need I insist on the amount of the be- 
nefit which will thus be conferred upon those, 
whose lot is cast in our colonies, and who are 
often constrained to return to their native country 
with broken constitutions and disappointed hopes, 
or at the best with such a loss of health, as rend- 
ers them unable to enjoy any other advantages, 
which they may have obtained by their longer or 
shorter absence from it. In the South of Europe, 
too, may it not (I feel myself almost authorized 
to say it will) be no less valuable as a means of 
correcting that depression of spirits and languid 
visceral function, which prevails to so melancholy 
a degree, and extent, as a consequence of indo- 
lent habits, unwholesome food, and other well- 
known causes; and why should it not, on the 
same principle, prove a corrective to the effects 
of the mar'aria of Rome, and in other districts of 



83 



an equally ungenial kind ?* The effect of its 
regular administration to children from the period 
at which' they are weaned, until their arrival at 
incipient manhood, I am not prepared to deter- 
mine ; but I am disposed to believe, that by thus 
insuring the regular performance of the visceral 
functions during the whole period of the body's 
growth, both the individual and national character 
of our physical constitutions would be materially 
altered and improved ; that we should again be- 
come a hardy, instead of what we now are — an 
enfeebled race.f What would be the effect of 

* The following case has been just now sent to me by Mr. 
Turnor. I give it in illustration of ray views, and a striking one 
it is : — "A very respectable young man, whom I met the other 
day in Naples, told me, that he came here aboat five years ago 
from a large manufacturing town in England, where his father 
lives, to take the management of a great mercantile house. On 
coming to Naples his health declined, and so much so, as to 
oblige him to return to England after some stay here. On reach- 
ing his native air he became perfectly well, and after a time 
returned to Naples, which he had no sooner reached than he 
became as ill as before — his stomach, he said, had wholly lost 
its power. In that miserable state he received a letter from his 
father, strongly recommending the Mustard Seed. This he 
took, a table-spoonful three times a day. He began this plan 
about three months ago, and is now better than he ever was — he 
said his stomach would now digest marble'' 

t It affords me peculiar satisfaction to be enabled here to 



84 



its introduction into the army and navy, as an 
article of " general usefulness and applicability," 
is with me no matter of inquiry : I am sure that it 
would be as efficient a preventive, and remedy, 
amongst our soldiers and sailors, whatever might 
be their circumstances of exposure to climate, or 
otherwise, as I have hazarded a conviction that 
it would be found, against the more limited evils 
to which T have just alluded, resulting from the 
greatest of all changes to which the European 

speak of the benign effects of its administration in the case of 
an infant at the early age of six months ; whose bowels, in con- 
sequence of its being deprived (by the sudden illness of its mo- 
ther) of the sustenance which nature supplies, had become so 
dependent upon medicine, that every thing like proper assimila- 
tion of its food was altogether interfered with — the ultimate 
consequence was, entire wasting of the body, and loss of every 
indication of health and tranquillity. At length I determined to 
discontinue the use of all other remedies, and to give the infant 
twice a day (with its food) fifty Mustard Seeds — the result was 
thus conclusive — in a month's time, without having occasion to 
take a single dose of medicine, it became, if possible, a more 
healthy child than before it was deprived of the comfort and be- 
nefit of the mother's breast. I need hardly add, that the infant 
is persevering in a course by which it has been rescued from so 
much misery ; and from the adoption of which I had before ven- 
tured so strongly to calculate upon in any case calling for such 
assistance to the right performance of the visceral functions.— 
Fifth edition. 



85 



frame is subjected ; and upon the same double 
principle. 

But whilst I thus strongly speak of its virtues, 
I would by no means be mistaken. I am far from 
wishing to be understood to be the setter forth of 
its omnipotency — nay there are many cases, appa- 
rently suitable ones for its use, in which it must 
be given with caution ; and many there are in 
which it will require, for a time, the aid of other 
medicines of greater activity, and power,* and 
not a few, in which medicine of no kind will be of 
service. I stand up in its behalf solely because 
I have myself had experience not only of its as- 
tonishing efficacy in the case of others, but in my 
own long-standing, and, as I feared, irremediable 
one. Of those cases it is not necessary now to 
give the details, and of my own it would be quite 
out of place here to speak at length. Suffice it 

* This must be borne in miiid ; or many and great disap- 
pointments will arise both to the patient and to the prescriber of 
the remedy, as well as much injurv to the reputation which it 
has now so generally obtained. In those cases where the daily 
use of a variety of medicines has become necessary, either to 
the actual or fancied comfort of the sufferer, much care must be 
exercised in bringing about a change of medical discipline. These 
habits, like the habits of disorder, before alluded to, are not to 
be rudely broken in upon — they mast be gradually corrected. 



80 



to say, that they were as diversified as they have 
been numerous, and that I can declare with truth, 
that I never knew what it was to enjoy a feeling 
of comfortable health unbroken for twenty- four 
hours together, until I became acquainted with 
the " efficacy of," and " took whole," " White 
Mustard Seed."* 

* As there are many persons who imagine that whatever is 
new to them is a Novelty, I would just mention in this place, that 
the virtues of Mustard Seed are spoken of by all the Fathers of 
Physic. The following passage of Pliny embodies, I believe, 
all that I have met with id their works, and sanctions at least 
nearly all that I have said in the foregoing pages : — 

" Sinapi, cujus in sativis tria genera diximus, Pythagoras principa- 
tum habere ex his, quorum sublime vis feratur, judicavit, quoniam non 
aliud magis in nares et cerebrum penetret. Ad serpentium ictus et 
scorpionum tritum cum aceto illinitur. Fungorum venena discutit. 
Contra pituitum tenetur in ore, donee liquescat, aut gargarizatur cum 
aqua mulsa. Ad dentium dolorem manditur: ad uvam gargarizatur 
cum aceto et melle. Stomacho utilissimum contra omnia vitia, pulmo- 
nibusque. Excreationes faciles facit in cibo sumptum: datur et sus- 
piriosis. Item comitialibus tepidum cum succo cucumerum. Sensus, 
atque sternutamentis caput purgat, alvum mollit, menstrua et urinam 
ciet. Hydropicis impouitur, cum fico et cumino tusum ternis partibus. 
Comitiali morbo, et vulvarum conversione suffocatas excitat odore, 
aceto misto: item lethargicos. Adjicitar tordilion. Est autem id 
semen ex seseli. Et si reliementior somnus lethargicos premat, cruri- 
btfs ant etiam capiti illinitur cum fico ex aceto. Veteres dolores thora- 
cis, himtorum, coxendicum, hnmerorum, et in quacumque parte cor- 
poris ex alto vitia extrahenda sunt, illitnm caustica vi emendat, pustu- 
las faciendo. At in magna duritia sine fico impositum: \el si vehe- 



87 



All T ask for it, therefore, is a fair trial of its 
capabilities; and whilst I do this, I must beg, 
that in thus commenting upon the diffusive reconi- 

meutior ustio tiineatur, per duplices pannos. Utiintur ad alopecias 
com rubrica, psoras, lepras, phthiriases, lithanicos, opisthotonos, 
luuiigunt quoque scabras genas, aut caligantes oculos cum melle. Sue- 
casque tribus modis exprimitur in fictili, calescitqiie in eo ifl Soie 
niodice. Exit et e caulicuio succus lacteus, qui ita cum indurr.it, c!en- 
tiuni dolori medetur. Semen ac radix, cum immaduere musto, conte- 
runtur, manusque plena? meusura sorbeutur ad firmandas fauces, sto- 
machum, oculos, caput, sensusque omnes: mulierum etiam lassitudi- 
nes, saluberrimo genere medicinae. Calculos quoque discutit potum 
ex aceto. llliuitur et livoribus sugiliatisque cum inelle et adipe anse- 
rino, aut cera Cypria. Fit et oleum ex semine madefacto in oleo ex- 
pressoque, quo utuntur ad nervorum rigores, lumborumque et coxendi- 
cuin perfrictiones."— Lib xx. c. 22. 

Having been repeatedly called on for a translation of tbe 
foregoing passage, and feeling that I might be somewhat sus- 
pected of colouring, I subjoin that of Holland, the only accre- 
dited translation which I have the means of giving. If it is rude 
and coarse, the reader must attribute it to the age in which he 
lived. 

M The hearbe Senvey, whereof there be three kinds (as I have 
alreadie observed in my treatise of garden plants), Pythagoras hath 
placed in the highest ranke of those simples that fume up aloft: for 
there is not a thing that sooner biteth one by the nose, and pierceth 
and mounteth more quickly into the brains than doth Senvey. The Seed 
thereof [commonly called Mustard Seed] being stamped, and with vine- 
gre reduced into a liniment, cureth the sting of serpents, and namely 
the prick with the scorpion. It hath, besides, a singular vertne to 
mortifie and kill the venomous qualitie of m'ishroms. If it bee but 
held in the mouth untill it melt and resolve, or otherwise be gargamed 
with honeyed water, it draweth waterie freame cut of the head. Seeing 



88 



mendation of it which has been given by Mr. 
Turner, I may not be considered as sanctioning 
the indiscriminate, and imprudent use of a medi- 

chewed, it easeth the toothach. For the falling downe of the Vvula, a 
gargarisme made of it with viuegre and honey, is excellent. There is 
not a medicine so singular for the stomacke and all the infirmi- 
ties thereof, ne yet for the lungs. Beeing eaten at meat, it dotu 
loosen superfluous fleame, and causeth a man to reach and fetch it up 
with ease ; yea and to take his wind and breath at libertie. In like 
manner, being taken warnie with the juice of cucumber, it cureth the 
falling sickuesse. It puvifleth the senses : it purgeth the head by smell- 
ing : it keepeth the body soluble : it provoketh womens monethly fleu- 
res, and urine. A cataplasme made therewith and applied accordingly, 
helpeth them that be in a dropsie : so it doth those that be subject to 
the falling sickuesse, but then must it be stamped with three parts of 
Cumin and Figs. If it be tempered with viuegre and held to the nose 
of such women as with the rising of the mother seeme to be strangled 
and to lie in a traunce, it raiseth them up againe ; in like sort, it awak- 
eneth those Mho be in a" fit of the lethargie: howbeit, in this case it is 
good to put thereto the seed of Seseli of Candie, which they call Tor- 
dilion. But say that the patients bee in so deepe a sleepe in this drow- 
sie disease, that by such meanes they will not start up and be raised, 
then take Mustard-seed and Figs, temper them with vinegre into a 
cataplasme, apply the same to the legs or the forehead or region of the 
brain rather. It hath a causticke or burning qualitie, and being ap- 
plyed in forme of a liniment to any part, it raiseth pimples : by which 
means, it cureth the old inveterat pains of the breast, the ach of the 
loins, the haunch, and hucklebone, the shoulders, or any part of the 
bodie where need is that the offensive humors settled deepe within, 
should transpire and be drawne outwardly to an issue. Now for that 
the nature thereof is to blister, in case the patient be timerous and 
feare some extreame operation of that burning quality that it hath, it 
may be applied to the part affected between a doubled linncn cloth : 
otherwise, if the place be very thicke and hard, it would be laid too 



89 



cine, which, whatever good qualities it may pos- 
sess, is liable to be abused by carelessness or 
ignorance. 

To shew still farther, that I do not consider it 
as superseding the use of all the other means, I 

without any Figs at all. Moreover, there is good use of Senvie with 
red earth, for to make the haire come agaiue which is falne; for scabs 
and scurfe, for foule morphew or the ltprosie, the lowsie disease, the 
universal crampe that causeth the bodie to stand stiffe and starke, as 
it were all of one peece without joynt ; also the particnlar cricke which 
setteth the necke backward that it cannot stir. An inunction made with 
it and honey, cureth the eyelids that be not smooth, but rugged and 
chapped; yea and clarifieth the eyes which be overcast with muddie 
mist. 

As touching the juice of Senvie, it is after three sorts drawne: the 
first, being pressed foorth, it is let to take a heat in the sun gently by 
little and little, within an earthen pot. Secondly, there issueth forth of 
the small stems or braunches that it hath, a white milkie liquor, which 
after it is dried and hardened in that manner, is a singular remetlie for 
the toothach. Where note by the way, that the seed and root both, after 
they have been well steeped and soaked in new wine, are stamped or 
brayed together : now if one doe take in a supping as much of this 
juice thus drawne, as may be held in the ball of the hand ; it is very 
good to strengthen the throat and chaws, to fortifie the stomacke, to 
corroborat the eyes, to confirme the head, aud generally to preserve ail 
the senses in their entire. And verily I know not the like holesome 
medicine agaiue, to shake off and cure the lazy and lither fevers that 
come by fits many times upon women. Senvie also being taken in 
drinke with viuegre, breaketh the stone and expelleth it by gravell. 
There is an oyle also made of Mustard-seed, infused and steeped in 
oyle, and so pressed out; which is much used to heat and comfort the 
stiffenesse of sinews occasioned by cold : to warme also and bring into 
temper the through cold lying in the loins, haunches, and hucklebones, 
whereof cometh the Sciatica. " 



90 



now come to the external remedial measures, 
which are of no little importance in this class of 
diseases. 

The Tepid Bath may claim precedence. If 
the extensive chain of sympathies between the 
skin and internal organs be kept in view, we may 
easily account for the benefit resulting from a 
judicious course of warm bathing. In augment- 
ing a mild discharge from the skin, the warm bath 
increases the internal secretions, particularly the 
biliary; while, at the same time, it relieves the 
venous congestion in the liver, and determines to 
the surface of the body. Speaking generally, it 
is by far the most potent and agreeable external 
measure which we can put in practice for the relief 
of those innumerable morbid and anomalous feel- 
ings with which the class of complaints under 
consideration is accompanied. The Vapour Bath 
is still more efficacious than the liquid, and where 
the circumstances of the patient require it, ought 
to be preferred. Where neither can be obtained 
or afforded, the Slipper Bath; and next to that, 
the Foot Bath may, in a considerable degree, 
supply their place with advantage. 

After the warm bath, Frictions, ivith flannel 
cr the flesh brush, in imitation of the oriental cus- 



91 



torn of shampooing, are of infinite use; and the 
region of the liver, as well as the whole spine, 
ought to be particularly well rubbed, in order to 
excite the action of the various vessels, circulat- 
ing, absorbent, and secretory; a measure which 
is seldom thought of, but which will be found to 
reward the trouble with unusual benefit. With 
respect to the Cold Bath, it is not so easy to lay 
down any general rules. In many cases of what 
are termed nervous and hypochondriac disorders, 
the cold bath is an excellent remedy ; but where 
much functional, or any organic derangement has 
already taken place in the hepatic system, the 
shock of the bath, and sudden afflux of blood 
from the surface to the centre of the body, become 
dangerous circumstances, and the most serious 
consequences have often resulted from it. 

In all cases, where it is wished to try its 
effects, the warm bath ought to precede its use 
for some time ; and then by lowering the tempe- 
rature of the water in the most cautious manner, 
to come round at length to the cold bath itself. 
When this last can be borne, and a comfortable 
train of symptoms ensues, with moderate reac- 
tion, then the benefit will be considerable, since 
these healthy alternations of the vital fluid lead 



92 



to a restoration of the secretions, and an equal 
balance of the excitability and circulation through- 
out the system. Before I dismiss the subject of 
bathing, I would mention the well-known mode 
of sponging the body with vinegar and water, 
after the method of Dr. Stewart in affections of 
the chest ; the good effects of which cannot be 
too highly stated, whether we consider it as inter- 
mediate between warm and cold immersion, or as 
a means of obtaining those ends for which cold 
bathing is prescribed.* Nor would I pass over 



* With a view to remove any impediment which inay stand 
in the way of a more extended use of this valuable remedy, I 
am induced to give at this place specific directions respecting it. 
The method is simply this : — Rub in either with the hand or with 
a sponge, night and morning, equal parts of vinegar and water, 
as if using an embrocation, all over the surface of the arms, 
throat, neck, chest, back, stomach and bowels — let the mixture 
be used tepid for the first three or four times, and then quite 
cold; first dry the skin with a coarse towel, and then rub it, for 
at least ten minutes, with flannel or a flesh-brush. In a few 
days the lower limbs may be treated in the same way. The 
quantity of vinegar may be reduced gradually after a week or 
ten. days, until it constitutes only one third ; and at the end of 
a few weeks, once a day will be sufficiently often to have re- 
course to its refreshing and invigorating influence. 

The good results of this discipline are incalculable — nothing 
can be more extraordinary than its effects in producing sleep, 



93 



the no less useful expedients of Dr. Scott* and 
Dr. Thomas,! for obtaining- relief in affections of 
the abdomen. Enough has been seen of their 



* The Nitro-Muriatic Bath. 

t The occasional application of leeches to the anus, and the 
more habitnal use of simple injections. 



and in lowering the pulse in many cases, of affection of the 
chest, where anodynes and other remedies are either inadmissi- 
ble or unavailing. In almost all cases of disordered viscera it 
seldom fails to impart a great degree of comfort to the sufferer. 
It abstracts internal heat, it promotes and produces a healthy 
circulation to the surface, and opens the pores of the skin ; and 
thus accomplishes the grand object which is never to be lost 
sight of — that of defending the patient against atmospherical 
vicissitude and exposure to cold. Other benefits might be men- 
tioned as accruing from the adoption of this plan, such as the 
power which the vinegar has in improving the tone of the cuta- 
neous vessels, and, when absorbed into the system, in dimin- 
ishing fever; its material co-operation in regulating the bowels, 
when aided by the unusual friction with which its application 
should always be accompanied ; and above all its importance as 
a substitute, under some circumstances, (for such I deem it) at 
once for exercise and for air. I will only add on the subject of 
this, mode of influencing the health and strength of the circula- 
tion, and of course the health of all the functions of the body, 
my entire concurrence with the opinion of my first and highly- 
esteemed preceptor Mr. Charles Bell, that if instead of taking 
the Stomach, or the Liver, or (lie Bowels, and continually harp- 



94 



effects to establish their reputation as remedies of 
valve, when aided by proper medicines. 

Under the head of external remedies may also 
be placed change of climate, or removal from a 
variable to a more steady atmosphere. All sud- 
den changes, however, of this kind, even, are 
dangerous. 

A sea voyage is, in general, as salutary in 
hepatic as in pulmonic complaints, though it is 
not commonly deemed to be so. The motion of 
the vessel, the comparative purity and equilibrium 
of the air, and regular hours, appear to be the 
chief causes of beneficial influence ; but these, 
perhaps, may be well counterbalanced by the ad- 
vantages to be obtained in a journey on land, 
where, to the exercise of riding in a carriage, or 
on horseback, are added the mental amusement 
and pleasure resulting from the contemplation of 



ing upon them to the seeming exclusion of the other parts of 
our frame, any one should take the Skin as his object of care, 
that his practice would have equal success, and his cases and 
facts become soon as numerous ; whilst his connexion with ge- 
neral science would be more intimate, and his claims to public 
favour more valid than any who have yet flourished in it by pro- 
mulgating doctrines in regard to the functions and diseases of 
individual parts. 



95 



rural or romantic scenery, with all the variety of 
objects which the diversified face of nature pre- 
sents to the eye of the traveller. 

It is but too true, however, that in the class 
of diseases now under review, a sombre tint is 
thrown over every landscape, and the mind is 
perpetually called oft' from external amusements 
and observations to a gloomy rumination on our 
morbid feelings ; and whatever mode of travelling 
we may adopt, we must not expect at once to 
leave our cares behind us, or to escape from 
ourselves. 

Happy ! thrice happy ! is it for those who 
thus brought to that point, where no earthly plea- 
sure can yield them enjoyment, and where human 
power seems capable of rendering them no assist- 
ance, are led to seek for comfort in higher hopes. 
There is nothing, perhaps, more calculated to 
teach us that all human things are " vanity and 
vexation of spirit" than that class of sufferings 
of which we have been speaking ; and he who 
has practically learned this lesson, at whatever 
price, has not paid too dearly for the knowledge. 
It is beyond all price to know, that this is not, 
and to learn where is, his rest. It may be that 
these sufferings are s§nt for his instruction, and 



96 



he may find that this palpable darkness before 
him, like that which inspired the host of Egypt 
with terror and dismay, has a bright side of hal- 
lowed flame — the light and the pledge of a pre- 
sent, a protecting, and a guiding Deity. 

But to return from this digression. 

I may here mention as somewhat analogous to 
a former recommendation, the good effects of a 
broad flannel bandage, composed of several folds, 
worn pretty tight round the abdomen, and reach- 
ing up to the epigastric region. Its benefits may 
be explained, 1st, from the local support which 
it gives to the abdominal viscera ; 2dly, from the 
equable' temperature and warmth which it main- 
tains there ; and 3dly, from the uniform degree 
of excitation, and consequent discharge from the 
skin. 

In winter, spring, and autumn, the general use 
of flannels is necessary in disordered functions or 
structure of the biliary or digestive organs, and, 
under some circumstances, the additional comfort 
of a waistcoat made of chamois leather, is re- 
quired ; in winter, to defend from cold ; in spring 
and autumn, to obviate atmospherical vicissitudes, 
which are then more prevalent. When the heat 
•of summer renders flannel oppressive and debili- 



97 



tating, from the excess of perspiration, thin calico 
should be substituted.* 

* It is a mistake to suppose that flannel is too warm a cloth- 
ing for summer — the fact is, that though it promotes the perspi- 
ration, it equally favours its evaporation: and we know that 
evaporation produces positive cold, this discharge being the 
means designed by nature for carrying off the superabundant 
heat, whether arising from climate, exercise, or fever. On the 
subject of warm clothing, too much cannot be said either in 
regard to the alleviation which it affords to the disorders here 
alluded to, or to the promotion of health, and consequently of 
all the other comforts and enjoyments of life. Boerhaave's 
favourite receipt for health was, " to leave off our winter cloth- 
ing on Midsummer-day, and to resume it the day following." 
This is indeed the only effectual method we can adopt to escape 
the influence of those sudden changes of weather to which we 
are so continually exposed. These sudden changes, which take 
place during three-fourths of our year, may be regarded as no 
less prejudicial to health, than they are disagreeable to our 
feelings ; and our fears of catching cold, which have frequently 
appeared ridiculous to foreigners, are really better founded than 
many even among ourselves are willing to admit ; colds in their 
consequences proving fatal to thousands every year. Though we 
cannot hope entirely to escape the unpleasant sensations, or 
altogether to ward off the fatal effects occasioned by this versa- 
tility of our climate ; yet by considering properly the nature of 
clothing, we may avoid much of the danger. If females are sub- 
ject to catch cold more frequently than men, it is not merely 
from their delicacy of constitution, or their being more confined 
within doors ; but from the frequent changes they make in the 
quality or quantity of their clothes, and sometimes because they 
G 



98 



The minutest attention should be paid to the 
feet. If they are allowed to remain cold or damp, 
an increase of torpor or of morbid irritability will, 

expose those parts of the body, that a little before had been 
warmly covered. If a greater proportion of females fall victims 
to consumption, may we not discover another canse in the fact — 
that they regulate their dress more entirely by some standard of 
elegance, than by a due regard to its most obvious purpose ; or, 
in other words, that they are more studious of Fashion than of 
Health, and are regulated by appearance rather than by utility. 

Again, is it not owing to the same tyranny of Fashion, that 
so many more girls than boys are mishapen? Deformity of 
body, as has been before stated, often proceeds from weakness 
or disease, and from mismanagement of other kinds ;* but is it 
not frequently the effect of improper clothing? Does it not 
frequently arise from an attempt to mend the shape, which God 
has given them, by dress? and do not those who know no bet- 
ter, believe that the female figure would be disgusting if it were 
not thus treated ? The bones of growing persons are so carti- 
laginous, that they readily yield to the slightest pressure, and 
easily assume the shape of the mould in which they are confined. 
The pressure of the abdomen by stays, as they are but too com- 
monly made and worn, impedes the action of the stomach and 
bowels, and the motion necessary for healthy respiration. Thus 
the process of digestion and the proper circulation of the blood 
are hindered, and a train of distressing disorders ensues. The 
pliancy of the body, and the natural grace of the female form, 

* In adverting to what I then said, I cannot omit to pay that tribute of respect 
which is here due from me to Dr. Ralph Palin— to whose impressive work on the 
Influence of Habits and Manners on the Human Race, I am much indebted for the 
views and opinions which I have upon the subject. 



99 

by direct or reverse sympathy, be communicated 
to the liver and chylopoietic viscera, and disturb- 
ance of their functions is sure to ensue. Hence 

is prevented by this rigidity of confinement. The imprudent 
zeal of the mother for the shapeliness of her daughter performs 
another most unkindly office for her ; — she frequently becomes 
either incapacitated for marriage — a great sufferer through her 
change of state — or dies in childbirth. 

These observations are in a peculiar manner applicable to 
the circumstances of children. By inattention to their clothing, 
the foundation of many diseases is laid which prove fatal to 
them ; particularly inflammation of the lungs, and of the lining 
of the membrane of the trachea, &c. This last, in its most 
violent state, has acquired the name of croup, a disease which 
sometimes destroys in a few hours. It is far from being invari- 
ably true, that children, who have been inured to cold, and 
brought up hardily, (as it is called) are the strongest in adult 
age : many have no doubt survived, and some may have thriven, 
under the exposure to which they have been subjected, upon 
the assumed force of the common notion that they are so ; but 
all medical men who have had an opportunity of attending much 
to the diseases of children, must have observed that those fami- 
lies in which children are least exposed to the infliience of cold 
are generally the most healthy, whilst those who are treated on 
the erroneous principle of hardening them, are scarcely ever 
free from disorder of some kind or other. By this mode of 
treating children it is that many diseases, which might other- 
wise have remained dormant, are brought into activity; and 
many fall sacrifices to pulmonary consumption and scrofula, in 
more advanced life, from this error alone. And yet how com- 
mon is the error, in practice at least, if not in principle or 



100 

the necessity of warmth and dryness, and the 
utility of frequent foot-baths, and frictions with 
flannel. 

design? how frequently do we see children, even delicate child- 
ren, not only in summer but at every period of the year, with 
their arms and chests uncovered, and their bodies from their 
stomach downwards, to all intents and purposes in a state of 
nakedness ? Is this giving nature fair play? 

To keep an animal in health, beside the retaining of a due 
degree of animal heat, there must be a continued generation of 
new juices, and a perpetual discharge of the old. Without the 
due quantity of perspiration, which with us depends very much 
on our clothing, neither the vegetable nor animal can continue 
in health ; a plant whose perspiration is stopt becomes sickly 
and dies ; and an eg^ whose shell has been covered with a varn- 
ish, and the perspiration stopt by this means, will produce no 
living animal either by the application of common heat, or that 
of incubation from the hen. It has been ascertained by experi- 
ments, at once of the most interesting and conclusive kind, that 
the insensible perspiration alone discharges more than all the 
sensible evacuations together; and that the proportion of this 
to all the other evacuations, is as five to three : though this pro- 
portion varies in different ages, climates, and constitutions, yet 
it is of such importance in all, that where it is in any consider- 
able degree deficient, a diseased state of the body must ensue. 
Indeed when we contemplate the importance of the function of 
the skin in its effects on the general activity of the vascular 
system, and in the delegated action which takes place between 
it, the stomach and intestines, and the kidneys and lungs, we 
shall be convinced of the wisdom, if not of the necessity, of 
paying attention to its habitual state. Engaged as the skin and 



101 

Though many of these circumstances have been 
noticed before, they are again brought forward 
here, from a conviction of their importance, and 

the lungs are in the performance of the same function (the 
throwing forth carbonic acid gas), we shoald be very particu- 
larly attentive to the condition of the former where there is any 
disposition to disease in the latter organ, since any impression 
of cold on the surface — any check to perspiration, throws upon 
the lungs more than their ordinary duty, and thus induces irri- 
tation in them, and perhaps consequent disease. Again, when 
we see how much the state of the skin is influenced by disorder 
and derangement of the viscera, we should be led not only to 
mark the symptoms of internal disease upon it, but to adopt the 
best means of exciting the one as a remedy for the affections of 
the other. In like manner the condition of the brain and the 
secretion of the kidneys are influenced by the state of the skin 
and of perspiration. All this tends to shew, that the nervous 
and vascular system are to be considered as one great whole, of 
which, indeed, each part has its distinct allotment, but can 
never, in a nataral state, or in morbid conditions, io general, be 
absolutely independent of, or disconnected from, the other parts 
of that mysterious portion of our frame ; and that the health of 
all the functions of our bodies is influenced, to the full extent 
of what has been before said on the subject of sympathy, and of 
the importance of an equal distribution of nervous and vascular 
excitement, by the proper or improper action of the skin.* 
The subject is deserving of scientific examination and reflection, 

* How powerfully all these functions, particularly that of the skin, are influ- 
enced by the Mustard Seed, need not be told, either to those, who have taken it 
themselves, or to those, who have had any opportunity of observing its effects on 
others. 



102 

the necessity of impressing them strongly on the 
minds both of patients and practitioners. 

Under this head may also be placed the reme- 
dial measure of exercise. A very erroneous idea 
is commonly entertained, of the nature and effects 
of exercise in the different states of the frame. 
Much mischief is daily done by carrying this re- 
medy to excess, thus aggravating the complaints 
which it was intended to remove. Whenever it 
is carried to the length of fatigue in the complaints 
under consideration, its effects are similar to a 
debauch. All the active exercises should be pur- 
sued, during summer, in the mornings and even- 
ings, while cool repose is to be indulged in, during 
the heat of the day, and particularly after the 
principal meal; since any exertion at that time 
disturbs the function of digestion, and causes 
flatulence, acidity, and uneasy sensations through 
the line of the intestinal canal. In winter, on the 
contrary, the exercise should be in the middle of 
the day, while the fogs of the mornings, and raw 
air of the evenings, are to be avoided. 

both in pathology and in practice j for health is enjoyed only 
•when the various functions, which together form the animal eco- 
nomy, are perfect, and one function cannot be in health unless 
the whole be also. 



103 

Speaking generally, the passive exercises are 
the best, as riding in a carriage, or on horseback ; 
but the swing would, I am persuaded, prove a 
very excellent substitute not only for the exercises 
above-mentioned, but also for a sea-voyage, since 
its effects are very similar on the animal economy. 

In respect to dietetics, the invalid himself is 
generally well acquainted with the kinds of food, 
which best agree with him ; but much might be 
done towards a cure in this way by the patient, 
had he resolution enough to bound the quantity 
of his nutriment within the pale of digestion. 
Satiety ought never to be felt at table by the bili- 
ous ; if it be, indigestion, flatulence, and oppres- 
sion at the praecordia are sure to ensue.* 

* " Regimen," says an old Physician, once sufferer enongh 
from Dyspepsia to write his own epitaph, under the persuasion 
that it would soon be wanted, " is the most important part of 
the treatment. By diet alone it is possible to alleviate the ex- 
tremity of distress, and to hinder disease from getting com- 
pletely the upper hand. Without attention to diet, it is quite 
in vain to hope that any patient can be rescued from its miseries. 
To employ the best remedies, while regimen is neglected, is to 
build up on one side, and pull down on the other. When the 
patient is brought into the most promising state of convalesence, 
the whole advantage will be destroyed by a single considerable 
error in diet; and the treatment will be to be begun again/' 
Accurate observation will indeed shew, that ease and healthy 



104 

Some attention is also to be paid to the time 
of taking our meals in this class of disorders. 
Early breakfast, dinner at one or two o'clock; 

under certain circumstances, are strictly attached to this seem- 
ingly hard condition. A bowl of water-gruel, a plate of fruit, 
will put the invalid ten degrees backwards ; half a pint of strong 
wine, twenty. On the other hand, I entirely agree with one, 
whose opinions are no less entitled to respect, " that to be 
always ■ considering what we should eat and what we should 
drink, and wherewithal we should be clothed,' in order to avoid 
the approach of disease, is the most likely means of provoking 
its attack. A man, indeed, who is continually feeling his pulse 
is never likely to have a good one ; and he who swallows his 
food from the same motive as he does his physic, will neither 
enjoy nor digest it so well, as if he took it in obedience to the 
dictate of an unsophisticated and uncalculating appetite. The 
valetudinarian who is in the habit of weighing his meals, will 
generally find that they lie heavy on his stomach. If he take a 
walk or a ride with no other view than to pick up health, he will 
seldom meet with it on the road." Whilst, then, I discount- 
enance all indifference as to habit on these points, I am far from 
giving my sanction to excess of care. The sum of the direc- 
tions which I would offer to patients of the class and character 
here adverted to, is founded upon an observation somewhere 
made by Lord Chesterfield on the subject of dress. His Lord- 
ship says, that " a gentleman, after having once dressed himself 
with proper care, will think no more about his dress during the 
remainder of the day." In like manner, after having adjusted 
his habits of regimen, or having had them adjusted for him, 
according to the most approved model, a wise man will banish 
the subject from his miud. He will, as uniformly as he can, 



105 

tea, or rather coffee, at six, and little if any supper, 
agree best with the generality of patients. Raw 
and acescent vegetables, cheese, oily and rancid 
meats, soups, gravies, and every species of confec- 
tionary and fruit, are to be avoided. Well-roasted 
animal food, biscuit, or stale bread, and rice or 
bread puddings, ought to be the standing dishes. 

adhere to the rules of living, which have been laid down for 
him, or which, as a matter of experience, he has formed for 
himself, bat will have them as little as possible in his thoughts. 
I would say to all such — live shnply, regularly, and temperately. 
To those, who are never happy but when they are takjng medi- 
cine, (and many such there are,) I would say, as often as you 
take your food, take the physic, which it is the design of these 
pages to recommend : whilst upon those, who have recourse to 
it only as a matter of necessity, I would enjoin no more than 
this one medical maxim — never take a meal without this adjunct 
either preceding or following it, in such quantity as your case 
may require, except in cases such as those to which I formerly 
adverted (page 81.) I would then add for both classes, how 
much soever I may feel authorised to lead you to expect from 
the medicine I have recommended to you, I caution you against 
expecting too much from it. Do not calculate upon its at once 
setting you free from all other medical restraint, or upon its 
instantly ridding you of every uneasy sensation. You may ex- 
perience difficulty in accommodating it to your system, and you 
may possibly have returns of your disorder ; but persevere in 
attempts to make it suit the circumstances of your case, and be 
assured that it will ultimately accomplish, to the full, these very 
objects for which I venture, so strongly, to recommend it. 
H 



106 

Of all drinks, water is the best; but as few 
who have been accustomed to inebriating liquids 
can be brought to relish the simple beverage of 
nature, a very agreeable and salutary drink may 
be formed in the following manner, and which will 
be found singularly beneficial in the wide range 
of bilious and dyspeptic complaints: — Dissolve 
six drachms of dried carbonate of soda in a quart 
bottle of water, and four drachms and a half of 
tartaric acid in another bottle of the same size ; 
when wanted for use, pour out a wine-glass full 
from each bottle, and throw them at the same 
instant into a tumbler, when an immediate effer- 
vesence will ensue, during which it is to be drunk 
off. 

Fermented liquors are very generally detri- 
mental. The least pernicious of the wines are 
sound Sherry and Madeira. As to spirits, they 
are scarcely admissable ; but if the patient will 
not, or cannot, abstain from them, Brandy should 
be taken, very much diluted with warm or cold 
water, and without sugar. 

Patients of this description should not trust to 
their own resolutions in respect to quantity ; but 
Jike Ulysses, who caused himself to be bound to 
the mast to avoid the Sirens, they should have 



107 

the quantity of their drink, and the degree of 
dilution, specifically limited, and on no account 
to be exceeded. 

Tea and Tobacco, as narcotic herbs, are in 
general hurtful ; and spirituous and anodyne tinc- 
tures and nostrums are to be utterly proscribed, 
as tending to give deeper root to each symptom, 
while they afford a fallacious and temporary relief. 

As the want of repose at night has a remark- 
able effect in aggravating bilious and nervous dis- 
orders, every thing which can tend to interrupt 
that solace of our woes, ought carefully to be 
avoided. Of these, late hours and suppers are 
the principal impediments to sleep. Tyrant Cus- 
tom has so inverted the order of Nature in respect 
to the time of retiring to rest, as it has in almost 
every thing we do, that we all suffer more or less 
the penalties of despising her sacred laws ! Early 
hours, both in retiring to, and shaking off, sleep, 
are indispensable in the treatment of this class of 
human maladies, and generally speaking, to the 
perservation of health. 



APPENDIX. 



Many instances might here be adduced in 
substantiation of the doctrine, and practice, incul- 
cated in the foregoing pages, but a few will be 
sufficient for the purposes of illustration. 

A confirmed invalid of more than thirty years 
standing, thus writes to me the first time after he 
had seen me on the subject of his complaints: — 

" February 7, 1826. 
" I am sorry to tell you, that the good hope with which 
you inspired me, as to the efficacy of the Mustard Seed in my 
more than melancholy case, has entirely died away. I hare 
been in all but constant misery, partly from its inoperative, and 
partly from its exciting effects, ever since I left Cheltenham. 
I fear I must give it up, unless you can put me in the way of 
managing myself better." 

And then in a second letter, the following week. 

" You will be pleased to hear that I am reaping the 
fruits of my obedience to your directions — that I have not ceased 
to continue the use of the Mustard Seed — that the stimulating 
effect of it has entirely subsided, since I took the aperient 
draught in combination with it, and that I am now really feeling 
a very considerable improvement in my general sensations." 



110 

Another, whose life has been one continued 
anticipation of greater suffering than that to which 
he had become accustomed, thus expresses him- 
self:— 

" December 26, 1825. 
" I have now passed the best autumn I ever remember 
to have passed; no head-aches, no cramps, no gout to any 
extent, except, perhaps, a slight monition once or twice, and 
that not enough to make me have recourse to a large shoe. I 
used to be in the habit frequently of taking calomel and blue 
pill ; for many months before July I had taken them sparingly ; 
since then not once. I occasionally aid the Seed with a little 
salts, or a couple of small pills of the compound rhubarb pill-— 
and when I do so, I experience what Mr. Abernethy means by 
its supplying the place of blue pill ; indeed it produces such an 
evacuation, in point of healthiness of colour, as blue pill never 
obtained for me, although it was intended, specifically, to have 
this effect. My feet, when up, were in the habit of being cold 
— when in bed, so dry and hot, that I was obliged frequently 
to put them out of bed, in order that the reaction might gain me 
a moisture and sleep. I am now not so chilly when up, and 
almost always in bed I have a slight perspiration on my feet — a 
luxury which I did not often enjoy before I took the Mustard 
Seed. My appetite and digestion are good; and I now expect 
to go through the winter and spring without my usual gouty 
attack." 

And thus respecting his son, February 18, 
1826:— 

" My boy had a return of his cough, which has now 
lasted about three weeks ; three days ago I dared, with a pulse 



ill 

at 100 and a constant tiresome cough, to give him the Mustard 
Seed, telling his medical attendant what I was going to do, and 
begging that his febrifuge draught might be made gently aperi- 
ent. Three days he has been under this discipline: his pulse 
was at 74 this morning hefore he got up; and not more than 76, 
by the medical attendant's account, in the middle of dinner, and 
his cough is infinitely better." 



The effect produced by the Mustard Seed in 
this case seemed so inexplicable to Mr. Turnor, 
to whom the above account of it was given, upon 
the assumed idea that its administration was inad- 
missible under any circumstances either of general 
or local excitement, that he desired I would give 
him my opinion upon the subject in writing, that 
he might transmit it to the father : this I did as 
follows — and T am glad of the opportunity which 
the expression of his wish now affords me, of 
speaking, thus publicly, to the point to which my 
letter to him would naturally bring the solicitude 
of a parent for a child, in such a state (under cir- 
cumstances well calculated to make him anxious), 
and to which I would lead both those who are 
sceptical, and those who are visionary, in relation 
to what has been said, and done, by Mr. Turnor 
and myself, in order to impart to the world at 
largo, the benefits of a remedy, by which so much 



112 

has already been accomplished, and from which, 
as I believe, so much may yet be expected, 

" My dear Sir, 

"The letter which you read to me this morning from 

Mr. has excited my interest in no common degree. 

What he says of the effect of his three days' administration of 
the Mustard Seed to his son, most strikingly illustrates the 
soundness of the principle for which I so earnestly contend, 
whenever I stand up in behalf, or defence, of what I denominate 
the first principles of scientific medicine. You have often heard 
me talk of that state of equilibrium, which I believe to be as 
essential to the perfect health of the body, as equanimity is to 
entire repose of the mind. You will not wonder then when I 
tell you, that I can thoroughly understand in what way it was, 
that the Mustard Seed produced so unlooked for an effect upon 
the more anxious symptoms of his disorder, and will compre- 
hend me when I say, that it was by restoring the balance of ex- 
citement in the system, that the irritation in the chest was re- 
lieved, the cough appeased, and the pulse reduced. It is at the 
same time beautiful and melancholy to trace the universal influ- 
ence of this principle over, and upon, the many varied afflictions 
to which our frame is subject. Thus to see how invariably the 
torpor of one organ of the body (whether that organ be the skin, 
the liver, the alimentary canal, or any other), occasions de- 
rangement in the balance of excitement throughout the whole 
system, and how the effects produced on other organs and parts 
of the system, resulting from association with it, become, in 
their turn, causes or reagents, reflecting back upon their source 
an aggravation of those ills which were originally disseminated 
thence — is to be convinced that the nervous system (and the vas- 
cular system also) is to be considered as one great whole, of 



113 

which, indeed, each part has its distinct allotment, but can never, 
in a natural state, or in morbid conditions, in general, be abso- 
lutely independent of, or disconnected from, the other parts of that 
mysterious portion of the animal fabric ; and to be satisfied, that 
to be physicians, we must be philosophers, and that to be true 
philosophers, we must be — Christians. 

" Should you write to Mr. , you cannot do wrong, 

I think, in urging him to give the Mustard Seed a fair — I mean 
here a cautious — trial, in the case of his son ; I have, as you 
know, a strong impression upon my mind on the subject of its 
applicability to the high purpose of resisting the progress of that 
remorseless enemy to British health, which so commonly makes 
its first appearance in no more alarming form than that of a 
simple cold, perhaps so slight, as not to be thought worthy of 
common attention. But whilst I say this, I would by no means 
have you infer, that I would not at the same time enjoin upon 
him the wisdom of adopting any other expedients which the pre- 
cise circumstances of his son's case might seem to indicate. 

" Amongst these I cannot help just mentioning, sedulous 
care against atmospherical vicissitudes — the prudent abstraction 
of blood — counter irritation upon the skin — uniform clothing — 
sponging the surface with tepid vinegar and water — well regu- 
lated exercise — earlv hours — attention to diet and to the state of 
the bowels — regular periods of taking food, &c. &c. But I am 
trespassing upon your time, and upon the province of those 
under whose care the invalid is ; I will therefore only add, that 
if you think my more palpable sanction is necessary to authorize 
you to saj all this, you are at full liberty to send my letter to 

Mr. ■ , should you think it in any way capable of doing 

aught to alleviate a parent's anxieties. 

" I am, my dear Sir, 

" Your's very truly, 

" Feb, 18, 1826." " C. T. COOKE." 



114 

Whilst adverting to this part of my conviction 
as to the value of the remedy of which I may be 
thought to have said so much, I cannot abstain 
from giving more at length one of the many grati- 
fying instances of its powers in that particular 
state of system to which I alluded when speaking 
of its prospective use as a medical preventive of 
Phthisis; because I have now no doubt either as 
to the legitimacy of the deductions to which I 
then silently came, or of the stability of the ad- 
vantages which have been derived by the subject 
of my illustration. She has within the last hour 
appeared before me in a condition which fully jus- 
tifies me in asserting, that she has been snatched 
from the arms of the fell destroyer — but her mother 
shall speak for her. 

" February 28, 1826. 
" My dear Sir, 

"I have much pleasure in replying to your inquiries 
respecting the past, and present state of my daughter's health, 
and will, for your more particular information, give you as 
correct an account of it as I can, from the time at which I first 
spoke to you respecting her. It was, as you may remember, 
about this time last year. She was at that period suffering from 
many symptoms calculated to excite my anxiety and alarm — her 
whole frame was in a state of debility, which rendered her in- 
r >> ' ' <>f either bodily or mental exertion — she was constantly 
• i o!<1. and cough, accompanied by a considerable 



11; 



degree of expectoration every morning on rising, and had such 
frequent pain in the chest, as to make it necessary, several times, 
to apply a blister to its seat : I cannot recollect more minutely 
the state of her pulse and respiration, than that it was usually 
quick and hurried — the consequent general irritability of her 
system was great ; she likewise laboured under such constant 
pain in her back, that she was never easy unless in a recumbent 
position ; as you know, my first apprehension was, that she 
laboured under an affection of the spine. She had likewise a 
total loss of appetite — but it is unnecessary to add more ; she 
bore about her every indication of the existence of that state 
of system which I know you considered only preparatory to the 
appearance of disease. I need not tell you to what point she 
was relieved of many of these uneasy sensations, by the means 
which were primarily used ; it is rather my duty, and my wish, 
to speak of what has since been done for her, by the simple 
remedy upon which you put her, as soon as you yourself first 
became sensible of its power in correcting such a condition of 
frame. Were I disposed to hurry over my present statement of 
her case, I should simply say, that from the first week of her 
taking it, she has been gradually advancing towards that aspect 
and enjoyment of perfect health which she now has ; but knowing 
your anxiety on the subject, I must bear this further testimony 
to the value of the Mustard Seed, under circumstances of con- 
stitution so appropriately to be denominated delicate, by adding, 
that she has never once had other than a slight cold, or been 
distressed by her cough, during the winter, nor had any return 
of pain in the chest or back — that her strength and appetite are 
quite restored, and that she does not now manifest in the small- 
est degree that irritability of system, which I was so glad to be 
told by you formerly was only symptomatic of the affection under 
which she was struggling — her bowels are kept in a healthy 
state; and I cannot omit to mention that she is (I firmly believe 



116 

from the use of the Seed) restored to that regularity of habit, 
the interruption of which no doubt added much to her former 
sufferings. I must conclude my account of her by stating, that 
I am really myself surprised at the very considerable increase 
of covering which her (late almost emaciated) body has ac- 
quired: this too I must attribute to the renovating effects which 
it appears to me this remedy has had upon her general consti- 
tution. 

" Jt is not, in her case alone, that I am enabled to bear tes- 
timony to the very beneficial effects of this valuable medicine ; 
I have another daughter, and a son, who have, together with 
myself, been very essentially benefited by its use. I cannot 
help intruding a little longer on your time, just to say a few 
words relative to my little boy, who has for a long time past 
been the subject of unceasing anxiety to me, in consequence of 
very frequent attacks of head-ache and giddiness, occasioned, 
I have every reason to believe, from a fall he had some years 
since; the recurrence of these attacks became of late more fre- 
quent, and evidently interfered much with his capability of at- 
tention to his usual course of study, and affected his general 
health and appearance. In consequence of your telling me, that 
you felt assured he would be benefited by the Mustard Seed, I 
immediately put him under a regular course of it, now about 
three months ago, from which time to the present, he has not 
had the slightest return of his unpleasant attacks ; and he as- 
sured me the other day, on quitting me to return to school, that 
he found too much benefit from the Seed to neglect, or omit, the 
taking of it a single day. Thus you see, that I have full reason 
to speak, as I most certainly think, highly of the value, and 
many beneficial effects of this— as I have often heard yon call it, 
blessed remedy. 

" I am, my dear, Sir, 

" Your's, &c." 



117 

A fourth thus speaks of the value of the re- 
medy judiciously administered — this letter is also 
dated December 26th : — 

" When we parted von fixed the period of my writing 
to von in March — what progress I may then have to report to 
yon time will shew. I can hardly be more free from ailment 
than I now am. I may be stronger, and I hope to be so, and 
my hopes are grounded on wh?.t I have experienced since I took 
the simple remedy you recommended to me, daily, aud cannot 
but think in a great measure resulting from it. I hear, however, 
that persons who have made a t!°Srough trial of Cheltenham, as 
I did this autumn, have derive 10 -' permanent benefit for a consi- 
derable time after discontinuing the waters, and I am disposed 
to praise both the bridges which have carried me safely. I hope 
to resort to the latter once a year, and I can never discontinue 
the Mustard Seed but with my life. I have never tasted medi- 
cine since I left Cheltenham, and never been a single day but in 
the most perfect state of natural functions that I can conceive, 
and have continually, and most sensibly, improved in strength. 
My case has attracted some degree of general notice, my looks 
having, as I am almost daily told, corresponded entirelv with 
my feelings.'' 

And thus a fifth, in two letters, dated No- 
vember 10th and December 4th, 1825 : — 

" I promised you that I would take two tea-spoon?ful of 
the Seed thrice instead of twice a day — this I did for a month ; 
the second daily dose at first after dinner; but finding that it 
occasioned inconvenience during digestion, I took it ar hour 
before dinner and soon afterwards, that the superadded quan- 



118 

tity was more than enough for ray purposes, I reverted to my 
morning and evening dose of two tea-spoonsful each, and now 
find it necessary only to persist in this, which I do with perfect 
regularity ; and it does for me all that my system requires, pro- 
ducing its effects without occasioning the slightest uneasiness 
in the bowels, or any of that nausea and disturbance of stomach, 
which I have hitherto invariably experienced from each of the 
multitude of remedies which I have tried with the view of ac- 
complishing what has always been (I speak of fifty years, at 
least,) so great a desideratum with me. I may truly say then, 
that I have obtained in the Mustard Seed every thing that I 
could expect or desire, and shali continue to avail myself of its 
many and great advantages. oi 

" I have of course recommended it to others more frequently 
than was my former practice, and I have had no reason to repent 
having done so ; if it has failed to produce all the good effects 
that were anticipated from it in some instances, it has done harm 
in none. My son's report to me of the advantage which he has 
derived from its use has always been very llattering, and he 
continues to think highly of its excellence." 

Prom the first person above alluded to, with 
his authority to make what use I thought proper 
of his case, I received the following gratifying 
additional testimony to the value of the remedy, 
as I believe, for his long-standing disease : — 

" February 26th, 1826. 

" It is now a month since I commenced the Mustard 

Seed, and though I feel myself unable to describe, with any 

degree of precision, the specific effects that have been produced 

uponmy system by it, I am quite sensible, that both my bodily 



119 

and moral sensations are improved— thai the whole character of 
my state is amended — so much so, that I feel an involuntary 
encouragement to persevere in its use, and always anxious for 
the arrival of the time of taking each dose, such is the agree- 
able effect which it afterwards produces opon me." 

From the second : — 

"February 27th, 1S2G. 
" My boy takes the Mustard Seed now once a day, to 
guard him from future cold : he omitted his dose yesterday after 
dinner, and I made him take it at bed-time last night ; his pulse 
was only at CS this morning before he got up : the Seed does not 
heat him — a fear which so many people seem to have. This 
effect, I believe, is produced only in those cases where it binds 
the body ; when it keeps the bowels open, it certainly cools. I 
have not the slightest objection to our cases being referred to, 
with the exception of our names ; and you may add, if you 
please, that I have grown fat under a course of the Mustard 
Seed." 

From the fourth : — 

" February 25th, 1826. 
" I continue to do credit to your kind advice ; and both 

Mrs. and myself have realized a very material benefit 

from your remedy, in entire freedom (we believe for the first 
time in our lives) from winter colds. We have had this exemp- 
tion in point of fact, and we are disposed to assign it to the 
Mustard Seed as the cause, and shall probably have your ready 
concurrence in this opinion." 

From the fifth, (a physician of no common 
eminence or attainments 



120 

"February 25th, 1S26. 
" I am enabled to confirm, up to this day, every 
particle of the report occasionally communicated to you of the 
effects of the Mustard Seed in my own case ; with the important 
addition, that, in my seventy-ninth year, I have passed the win- 
ter much more free from catarrhal symptoms, than I remember 
for twenty years past. 

" As I perceive the minute accuracy of the extracts of my 
letters to you, I can have no possible objection, that the truth 
should be told, in print, on the contrary my hope is, that it may 
prove more generally useful. 

" In one of the other cases you send for my perusal, I see 
the heating effects of the Mustard Seed are mentioned, and the 
same observation has often been made to myself. I believe the 
idea to be a fanciful one, and always discountenance it." 

Another medical friend thus writes to me : — 

" March 31st, 1826. 
" I visited a man (a very old man) this morning, who 
has suffered for many years from asthma and repeated inflam- 
matory affections of his chest. I advised him a month ago to 
take a table-spoonful of Mustard Seed every morning an hour 
before his breakfast; he has continued this plan for the above 
period. He cannot now be in better health at his time of life. 
Before I left him, I inquired in what way he took the Mustard 
Seed ; he told me in roasted apple, and that it produced the most 
salutary effect upon his breath and his hitherto constipated 
bowels. Previous to the above period he was in the constant 
habit of taking expectorants, aperients, &c. and now he takes no 
medicine whatever." 

For the following I am indebted to Mr. Tur- 



121 

nor, and the d cument is valuable, not only be- 
cause it affords a striking- proof of the value of 
Mustard Seed, both as a medicine strictly speak- 
ing, and as a means of restoring strength, but 
because the individual from whom it comes for a 
long while resisted every inducement which was 
held out to her to take advantage of its benefits 
in her more than deplorable case: — 

" April 7th, 1826. 
" Grateful feelings ought to have moved my pen 
sooaer; perhaps you will not give me credit for having any; 
but individuals, as well as the public in general, owe much to 
your exertions in making known the v:onderjul efficacy of the 
Mustard Seed. For my own part, I can only say that after re- 
peated severe illnesses, and corresponding dreadful weakness 
and nervousness, rendering the continuance of my life doubtful 
and almost undesirable, I resorted, at last, to the Mustard 
Seed, and now want nothing else. The late addition to your 
tract will, I hope, convince other unbelievers that complaints 
originate more often than is imagined in the stomach and its de- 
pendencies, and that the Mustard Seed is a most astonishing 
remedy for regulating the whole passage from the throat to the 
extremity of the bodv. 

" My stomach would bear little more than grud, and I was 
redaced to the last extremity ; bat I can now take food like 
other people, and frequently wine ; and I wish to proportion mj 
gratitude to the benefit I have derived." 

For this also I am indebted to his kindness : 
and liow strong is the evidence which it bears to 

K 



122 

the transcendent worth of the simple remedy of 
which it speaks :- — 

"April 13th, 1826. 
" I promised to write to you, and I should be unworthy 
of the kind attention which you paid me at Cheltenham, and 
ungrateful for the comfort which I have since experienced from 
the adoption of your advice, if I was for a moment unmindful 
of my engagement : I have waited only to give you a more 
satisfactory account of my experience of the effects of your 
recommendation. 

u When I had the pleasure of seeing you, I informed you in 
what state of health I had been for the last six or seven years ; 
and that although I was comparatively well, I still occasionally 
suffered much from the inactivity of my stomach and bowels. 
During my stay at Cheltenham, my evacuations were not more 
frequent than every other day, and always scanty, indurated, 
and of an unhealthy colour. Your representations convinced 
me that Mustard Seed would be serviceable to me, and I was 
fully confirmed in this opinion by the perusal of Mr. Cooke's 
pamphlet, on my journey hither. I began, therefore, to take it 
on the very evening of my arrival home, (Saturday, the 1st in- 
stant,) and have since taken it thrice a day, two large tea-spoons- 
ful each dose, at intervals of six hours. The effect has been 
almost miraculous. I have had a regular daily evacuation ever 
since — my appetite has been good — my sleep undisturbed — and 
not only my bodily but my mental energies materially im- 
proved. In short I have not experienced an uncomfortable 
sensation throughout the interval. Need I add how infinitely 
obliged to you I consider myself for this invaluable change in 
my sensations. 

" I shall not, I cannot, fail to promote your benevolent 
wishes by every exertion in my power, to extend to others that 



123 

improvement of health and increased comfort whicn I am now 
in the enjoyment of, and which I have no doubt may be obtained 
by others from their adoption of your advice/' 

But this testimony does not stop here ; I have 
since received a letter myself from the author of 
it:— 

\< April 29th, 1826. 
" I am happy to find from Mr. Turnor, that you are 
about to publish a third edition of your Observations on the 
Efficacy of White Mustard Seed, in affections of the stomach, 
liver, &c. &c. The book has been much read here and in the 
neighbourhood ; in consequence of which many persons have 
been led to take the Seed according to your directions, and I 
have not heard of a single case in which the experiment has been 
fairly made, and not completely succeeded. 

" Mr. Turnor has already acquainted you with my case, and 
the effects which I have experienced from taking the Seed since 
the 1st instant. I can have no possible objection to your giving 
publicity to my letter to him, suppressing only my name and 
place of residence. I can only add, in addition to what I have 
stated in that letter, that I continue to take the Seed, and that 
it has made a new man of me. My body is in a regular and 
healthy state — my appetite and digestion good — my sleep com- 
posed and refreshing — and all the powers of my mind, as well 
as of my body, restored and renovated." 

To enter into the details of my own case to the full extent of 
the desires which have been expressed to me, would be to relate 
a series of miseries that would be as tedious in their relation, as 
they must needs be uninteresting, to the generality of those 
before whom so lengthened a statement might chance to come— 



124 

in few words my history Is amply tokl. In my life, I never 
knew what it was to have a single action of the howels without 
the aid of medicine, or to be free, for many hours, from all the 
wretchedness of disorder, and of remedy in conjunction, until 
I took the Mustard Seed, nor was I ever able, until now, to say 
there is in life that which is worth living for, or in other and 
more proper words, I did not know what it was to wish to live. 
And all this, whilst I was exercising the functions of an anxious 
and arduous, and to me most interesting profession, and was 
obliged to, and did actually, assume the appearance of health, of 
capability, and of enjoyment. 



The little girl, whose case I referred to at page 77, is now 
quite well : there has been no subsequent effusion into the abdo- 
minal cavity — her appetite and flesh have returned — her food is 
properly assimilated, and its residue regularly discharged. She 
still takes her usual quantity of the Mustard Seed. 



OBSERVATIONS 

i3n tf)t <£fficarg 

OF 

WHITE MUSTARD SEED (Sinapis Alba), 

TAKEN WHOLE. 



THE TENTH EDITION. 



It is hoped, that the increased interest which 
the subject of these " Observations" appears 
to have excited, not only in Great Britain, but 
also in France and Italy, may incline those into 
whose hands this edition of them may chance to 
come, to read it with attention. 

The White Mustard Seed (an approved medi- 
cine of high antiquity) besides its acknowledged 
powers as a remedy and preventive, has many 
advantages to recommend it. The constitutions, 
with which it may possibly disagree in consequence 
of latent peculiarities, are comparatively very few ; 
and perhaps there is scarcely any complaint, in 
which a prudent and cautious trial of it may not 
be made with safety. It is at once a tonic, and 



126 

an aperient ; and such is the mildness of its ope- 
ration, that it may be used with equal propriety 
and effect at all periods of life, from early child- 
hood to extreme old age. It has frequently suc- 
ceeded when all other medicines have failed ; 
when properly taken, it does not loose its effect 
by long continued use ; it requires neither confine- 
ment to the house, nor any particular attention to 
diet ; and (which adds considerably to its value) 
it lies within the reach of almost every individual. 
The remaining observations, for the sake of perspi- 
cuity, are arranged under the three following heads. 
1st. The complaints to which the White Mustard 
Seed is applicable. 2nd. The probable cause of 
its efficacy ; and 3rd. Directions for its use. 

1st. The complaints to which the White Mustard 
Seed is applicable* 
It is very generally admitted, that a great ma- 
jority of the complaints to which we are liable, 
most commonly arise from an imperfect discharge 
of the important functions of the stomach, liver, 
bowels, and other organs, by which digestion and 
chylification are effected. And as the White 
Mustard Seed, when properly taken, usually re- 
stores those organs: to the right discharge of their 



127 

respective duties, it is on that account recom- 
mended as a remedy for this class of complaints. 
It should however be observed, that as the Mus- 
tard Seed will not set a broken leg, so neither will 
it cure those complaints, where the organs on 
which they depend have sustained any consider- 
able injury of structure ; and that in cases of 
functional derangement only (unattended by in- 
jury of structure) the remedy is inadmissible, if 
the disordered organs are in a state of decided 
inflammation. Cases of the former kind are ge- 
nerally without any remedy at all; and in the 
latter, recourse must be had, at least in the first 
instance, to measures of greater activity. For 
the information of those who have not attended 
to this subject, I have added, in a note placed at 
the end of these observations, a detail of com- 
plaints, which most commonly proceed from func- 
tional derangement of these organs, and which 
therefore, in the absence of structural injury and 
decided inflammation, (aggravations which com- 
paratively seldom occur) may, generally speaking, 
be cured or materially relieved by a judicious use 
of the Mustard Seed. The surprise which will 
naturally be excited in the mind of the uninformed 
reader on his perusal of this note, will as naturally 



128 

cease, when he reflects that these complaints, how- 
ever numerous and opposite, arise for the most 
part from one and the same cause, and are there- 
fore probably within the influence of one and the 
same remedy. 

2nd. The probable cause of the Efficacy of the 
White Mustard Seed. 

After the observations offered under the pre- 
ceding head, little remains to be said on this. If 
the general health and vigour of the system depend 
on the healthy condition of the digestive and chy- 
lopoietic organs, the Mustard Seed, where it re- 
stores those organs, restores also at the same time 
the general health ; and a sound state of health 
being incompatible with complaint, the same re- 
medy, by restoring the former, necessarily ope- 
rates to the removal of the latter. The efficacy 
of the Seed, therefore, where it leads to a cure, 
does not arise from any fancied specific effect on 
the particular complaint, but from the restoration 
of sound general health produced by an improved 
state of these organs ; on the establishment of 
which, the complaint necessarily ceases to be, 
and is no longer felt. 



129 

3rd. Directions for the Use of the White Mustard 
Seed. 
Invalids who would make trial of the Mustard 
Seed, without the risque of inconvenience, and 
with any rational hope of success, should attend 
to the following caution. Those who are in the 
habit of taking powerful medicines, as (for exam- 
ple) mercury in the form of blue pill or calomel, 
and strong purgatives, must on no account dis- 
continue the use of them abruptly, but should 
resort to them at proper intervals during the use 
of the Seed, and more especially at the com- 
mencement of it : and they, whose complaints, 
for the want of an earlier resort to remedial mea- 
sures, are too far advanced to yield at first to the 
mild influence of the Mustard Seed, should clear 
the passages by one or two doses of proper open- 
ing medicine, previous to beginning a course of 
the remedy. And all invalids without exception, 
at all times during the use of the Seed, in all 
cases, and under all circumstances, should take 
particular care so to regulate the bowels, as to 
procure a comfortable evacuation of them by one 
or two stools, and not more, every day ; a relief, 
in securing which, the chief art in the use of the 
remedy consists. 



130 

The Mustard Seed is always to be swallowed 
whole (not broken or masticated) and either alone, 
or in a little water or other liquid, warm or cold. 
For children, or those who find difficulty in swal- 
lowing it, each dose, as it is wanted for use, 
should be washed in boiling water for one or two 
minutes, after which, it may be taken in gruel, 
barley-water, arrow root, or other smooth liquid, 
and, if necessary, a little sugar may be added to 
render it more agreeable to the palate. The Seed 
is not digested, but passes through the body whole, 
and very little if at all enlarged ; and hence, it 
probably operates, partly by its mechanical action, 
and partly by the stimulating properties of the 
mucilage constantly flowing from it in its passage 
through the alimentary canal. 

As the Seed is used as a tonic to strengthen 
the digestive and chylopoietic organs, like all 
other tonics, it should be taken in divided doses ; 
and generally speaking, three doses should be taken 
every day. And as it is also used, not as a pur- 
gative, but only as a gentle aperient, to procure 
a comfortable evacuation of the bowels, by one 
or two stools, and not more, every day, care must 
be taken so to regulate the quantity in each dose, 
that the whole of the Seed taken in the course of 



131 

the day shall have that effect. The quantity there- 
fore in each dose must, in all cases, be ascertained 
by trial, and must be determined by the observa- 
tion and judgment of the patient. Generally 
speaking, the desired effect will be produced by 
half a large table spoonful, or about a quarter of 
an ounce, in each dose. But when that quantity 
affects the bowels too much, each of these doses 
should be gradually diminished ; and where it 
does not influence them sufficiently, each of the 
three doses may with safety be gradually increased 
to a large table- spoonful, or about half an ounce; 
a quantity which should be regarded as the max- 
imum, and should not be exceeded. Persons 
whose bowels are in a relaxed and irritable state, 
children, and those whose constitutions are weak 
and delicate, or who are otherwise in feeble health, 
or of an irritable feverish temperament, should 
begin with one dose in the day, containing a small 
tea-spoonful, or about the third or fourth part of 
half an ounce, and proceed by degrees to three 
doses, and an increased quantity in each ; resort- 
ing in the mean time, as in other cases, to more 
active aperients, if necessary. 

The Mustard Seed, like most other medicines, 
generally answers best when taken on an empty 



132 

stomach. The first dose therefore should be taken 
about an hour before breakfast, the second about 
the same time before dinner, and the third at bed 
time, or about an hour before. Whenever it pro- 
duces any considerable irritation or uneasiness in 
the stomach or first passages (which sometimes 
happens), it may be taken on sitting down to 
meals, or an hour after each. 

Whenever three doses of the Seed, each con- 
taining a large table-spoonful, or half an ounce, 
fail to produce the proper effect on the bowels, 
the patient should not attempt to remedy the fail- 
ure by the addition of more Seed, but should 
always have recourse to some more active aperi- 
ent medicine. In the absence of piles, he should 
assist the operation of the Seed with a little Ep- 
som salt, castor oil, the patent Seidlitz powders, 
(an efficacious and very agreeable medicine) or 
other mild aperient, taken either in the morning or 
evening, instead of the first or third doses of the 
Seed. And if he be troubled with that complaint, 
he should take at bed time, instead of the third 
dose of the Seed, either a mixture of a small tea- 
spoonful of milk of sulphur, and an equal quan- 
tity of cream of tartar, in a little water or syrup 
of any kind ; or a portion, about the size of a 



133 

nutmeg, of a highly approved aperient, for the 
recipe for which I am indebted to the kindness of 
a friend. " Take of powder of senna half 

AN OUNCE, OF MILK OF SULPHUR AND CREAM 
OF TARTAR, EACH TWO DRACHMS ; MIX THEM 
WITH SYRUP OF ROSES SUFFICIENT TO FORM 
AN ELECTUARY." 

The length of time requisite to secure the be- 
neficial use of the Mustard Seed necessarily de- 
pends on the constitution and habits of the patient, 
and on the nature and degree of his complaint. 
Generally speaking, a steady unremitted daily use 
of it, according to the preceding directions, for the 
space of two or three months, (in some instances, 
for a longer, and in many others, for a much 
shorter period) will effect a cure, or afford mate- 
rial relief. As an encouragement to perseverance, 
the patient should bear in mind, that as disorder, 
if not checked, is apt to lead to disease, those or- 
gans, which at present are deranged in function 
only, may, if neglected, become injured in struc- 
ture also. With this possible evil in view, he will 
naturally proceed with increased resolution in the 
prosecution of his object, and will treat with more 
decided indifference, all trifling inconveniences; 
such (for instance) as slight nausea or irritation, 



134 

which may possibly arise from the seed on its first 
introduction ; all occasional relapses, which may, 
and probably will, occur in the course of his pro- 
gress towards a cure; and any length of time, 
however great, which the beneficial use of the re- 
medy may appear to require. 

When the Seed is taken as a Preventive by 
persons of consumptive and delicate habits, or 
otherwise constitutionally susceptible of cold, or 
by others for the purpose of preventing the return 
of any complaint ; or when it is taken as a Remedy 
for occasional costiveness, or any slight attack of 
complaint; a single table-spoonful, or half an ounce 
of the Seed taken every day about an hour before 
breakfast, will frequently answer the purposes in- 
tended. In all these cases, however, where one 
such dose fails to influence the bowels sufficiently, 
a second, and (if necessary) a third similar dose 
should be taken. And if all fail, the patient must 
have recourse to more active aperient medicine, 
observing the preceding directions for its use. In 
proof of the power of the Seed as a Preventive, I 
Would observe that ever since the month of June, 
1822, when I first made trial of it, down to the pre- 
sent time, (a period exceeding five years) I have, 
by the unremitted daily use of it, enjoyed an uni- 



135 

formly perfect state of health, and (which is Very 
remarkable) a total freedom from any the slightest 
attack of cold. If such be the effect of the Mus- 
tard Seed in general, and if its remedial powers be 
really such as I have described ; may not the pro- 
per use of it, in its twofold character of Remedy 
and Preventive, add in many instances ten years 
to the duration of human life ? 

The following is the Note referred to in the 
preceding Observations : — 

Since the month of June ,1822, when I first became acquainted 
with the uses of the White Mustard Seed, repeated instances 
have occurred under my own observation, in which the following 
complaints, arising from functional derangement of the digestive 
and chjlopoietic organs, were totally removed, or materially re- 
lieved, by the use of it : viz. — Inveterate head-ache, weakness 
of the eyes, apparently leading to loss of sight, weakness of the 
voice, and excessive hoarseness; asthma, shortness of breath, 
and cough ; indigestion, oppression and sense of fullness after 
eating; heartburn, wind, and spasms or cramp in the stomach; 
debility, uneasiness, pain aud sense of tenderness and soreness 
in the interior generally ; obstruction and torpor of the liver ; 
gravel, and scanty or otherwise unhealthy state of the urine ; re- 
laxed and irritable bowels, occasional and habitual costiveness, 
and flatulence ; severe rheumatism, lumbago, spasms or cramp in 
the body or limbs, deficient perspiration, partial and general 
dropsy, palsy, coldness and numbness inthe limbs and feet ; loss 
of appetite, weak and irritable state of the nerves, depression of 
spirits, and general debility of the system. To these complaints 



13G 

may be added Worms, as well the large round, as the small white 
ones ; for which, both with children and grown-up persons, the 
Seed has proved a complete remedy. It has also been equally 
successful in female complaints, and after confinement, and es- 
pecially after severe lyings-in. And children at the breast have 
been restored to the most perfect health by the effect produced 
on the milk of the nurse, where she has taken it. 

I would observe also, that in gout, ague, incipient phthisis, 
epilepsy, scrofula, scurvy, erysipelas or St. Anthony's tire, tic 
douloureux, and in recovery from small pox, typhus, scarlet and 
rheumatic fevers, the Mustard Seed has been taken with consi- 
derable advantage. 

I am unwilling to conclude this Note, without observing, that 
the Mustard Seed will probably be foand peculiarly beneficial 
to the studious and sedentary, to persons whose constitutions 
have suffered from long residence in hot climates, to mariners and 
sailors while at sea, to manufacturers and mechanics of every 
description, to miners and such as work under ground, to the 
indolent and intemperate, to the poor who suffer from hard la- 
bour and scanty means of support, and to persons advanced in 
years. In Great Britain, where the climate is so very variable, 
it cannot fail of being eminently serviceable : there is also good 
ground for believing that it may be highly beneficial in the East 
and West Indies, and that it may in great measure obviate the 
ill effects of mal' aria and sirocco wind, so very prevalent in many 
parts of Italy. 

JOHN TURNOR. 

Stoke Rcchford, near Grantham, October, 1827. 



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